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Turnitin.com - Placebo for Plagiarism or Worse?

Posted by Cliff on from the why-don't-corps-understand-the-concept-of-personal-IP? dept.

Foo Shackelford asks: "At my University I have noticed a disturbing trend and was wondering if there are any other students, faculty, or staff who have concerns about the web based anti-plagiarism service called Turnitin.com? Turtnitin.com is supposed to be is a placebo for plagiarism where students submit papers for analysis. While plagiarism is by all accounts bad and should not be tolerated, the implementation of Turnitin.com on University campuses leaves many questions unanswered. If you read their terms of use it appears that students papers become the property of Turnitin.com. Turnitin.com keeps a copy of every student paper submitted and students have no choice in this matter. Where are the rights of the student? Also, there appears to be no warrantee to the accuracy of the service. Where does this leave the student who is accused of plagiarism? It would be nice for those who decide to implement the usage of services like these within their institutions to look beyond the placebo and consider issues of privacy, intellectual property, and most of all trust relationship that they hold with their students. Any thoughts on this?" We last touched on a related issue in this article on students GPLing their work. Might such a solution work here in terms of protecting a student's right to use any work that they submit to other sites/services that have implicit contracts like the one described here for Turnitin.Com?

17 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet! by FortKnox · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm turning in a paper that was blatantly plagiarised so I can get my sugar pill!

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    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
  2. From my own experience... by turbine216 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can tell you that if turnitin.com is anything like slashdot, they'll just mod the paper into oblivion if it doesn't jive with the editors' opinions. But hey, what do I know?

  3. GPL'd papers .... obvious plagarism ..... by taniwha · · Score: 5, Funny

    there's that same big block of legaese at the beginning that will trigger the filter every time :-)

  4. Canned response to English instructor: by cscx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Plagarism? That's preposturous! That paper was licensed under the GPL! I had every right to copy it and modify a few words here and there, as long as I made the paper available to others...

  5. Oh, to be the owner's kid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Imagine if your parent ran the company. Free papers for life!!!

  6. Big deal by nagora · · Score: 2, Funny
    Of course they keep a copy of every paper, that's how they check for plagarism! What did you think they did use the md5 hash cross-indexed with a Tarot reading?

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  7. The Closed Source Paper by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    "I can't read your term paper, son."

    "That's right, it's closed source and encrypted, but you can ask me questions about it, which I may or may not answer."

    "Umm.."

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:The Closed Source Paper by IAgreeWithThisPost · · Score: 0, Funny

      Yes I have a paper. No you cannot see it. I'm afraid that may jeapordize my intellectual property. What? I'll fail? Fine, I'll just buy out the competition and use their papers.

      --
      security through obscurity = modding down anti-linux posts so maybe noone will see them
  8. A placebo? by Hangman+Jim+99 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You mean it doesn't actually check anything, it just makes you think it has?

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    --- I hate my sig
  9. Re:Uhm would somebody care to explain this to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What exactly is this talking about?

    I could tell you, but I don't want to have to plagiarize from the anti-plagiarism website to do so.

  10. One way to avoid accusations of plagiarism... by FFFish · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...misspell your BigWords. Pretty darn tough to get caught if, for instance, you use "placebo" when you really mean "panacea."

    I know, there's a risk the professor might actually read your paper and discover that you're illiterate, but it's a pretty slim risk...

    ...'cause most professors just toss the papers down a staircase, and grade 'em based on distance.

    --

    --
    Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
    1. Re:One way to avoid accusations of plagiarism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      My physics teacher in high school told us he actuall tried that with one class once because they all failed. Even if he did it with my class, what do I care, I still held a 100+ average throughout the year. I thought it was funny as hell, everyone else got really worried though (contributing to the humor).

  11. The other side of the coin... by CaffeineAddict2001 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You can take plagerized texts, run it through this software and then keep tweeking it until it no longer sets off the filter alarm.

  12. Re:My Highschool by Chundra · · Score: 1, Funny

    The Cost: Its expensive, I don't know how much it costs but its money. This means that money is being spent

    Yes, but if your history department doesn't do it, the terrorists have won. Don't you see?

  13. output of MSFT source code turitin run :-) by peter303 · · Score: 3, Funny

    17% match with CP/M
    23% match with BSD
    32% match with Apple OS
    34% match with DEC VMS
    16% match with Borland

    Summary:
    112% matches with other source bases (indicates
    mutual plagarism)
    0% original code

  14. Re:No, really, what are they talking about? by Monkey+Troll · · Score: 3, Funny
    It does NOT matter that the story was factually incorrect, and very poorly written. Slashdot only has two requirements for a story to get on the front page:
    1. Will this story generate lots of responses, and,
    2. uhh...
    Slashdot only has one requirement for a story to get on the front page. -- Slashdot. The Placebo for technology journalism.
  15. Re:Not only in universities.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Adolescence is the key point where many girls fall behind in the sciences, and gender politics is the primary factor"

    Baloney. girls fall behind because their brain is wired for math and science. Its wired for being pregnant, makin' babies and thinking of creative ways to say "no" to oral and anal sex.