Online Plagiarist Sues University

raistphrk writes "The Reg reports that an English student at the University of Kent has sued the university after the university caught him ripping his papers off the Internet and kicked him out of the English program. I guess the stakes are now being raised for universities that use services to check for plagiarized papers."

Comments

PLEASE DO NOT PLAGIARIZE THIS POST

[Anonymous Coward]

*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_
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e_\_______|_/_______/__\\\___--___\\_______:____e_ _
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g____\______\_________.--------.______\|___|____g_ _
o______\_____\______//_________(_(__>__\___|____o_ _
a_______\___.__C____)_________(_(____>__|__/____a_ _
t_______/\_|___C_____)/______\_(_____>__|_/_____t_ _
s______/_/\|___C_____)(C)2004|__(___>___/__\____s_ _
e_____|___(____C_____)\GOATSE/__//__/_/_____\___e_ _
x_____|____\__|_____\\_________//_(__/_______|__x_ _
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*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_

Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

Gah. Stupid university.

[Rodrin]

I actually agree in one way or another. I think that the university probably wanted to suck him dry and then take his degree. They kicked him out on his LAST day? He had been cheating the entire time before that.

THE SLASHDOT TROLL HOWTO 0.65

[Anonymous Coward]

This is version 0.65 of a troll HOWTO. As a draft, comments and criticism are always welcome, if not appreciated :) By version 0.7, sections on karma whoring, conning the Slashdot users in to clicking your links, and how to beat the other trolls to the punch. If you would like to work on the ./ Troll HOWTO, please by all means modify it as you see if, please post the new version of your howto as Unofficial until I can come and pick it and merge the the two together. Make sure to make your version a minor release, as I will be in charge of posting all new major releases.

Section 1 - Trolling techniques

There are techniques used by successful trolls to elicit the maximum amount of responses from unthinking /.ers. This section is dedicated to explaining how to use these in the course of your trolls. Remember though, a great troll can break any or all of these and still be successful..

* Timing

Because you're posting as an AC, your troll will generally be ignored in favor of posters using their accounts, and so getting in early is essential. A good guideline is to get into the first 20 posts, so that people reading the article will see the troll before it is swamped out. One way of increasing the speed with which you get your troll into play is to prepare them beforehand, and then quickly customize them for the current article. This is easier than it sounds since /. typically repeats stories with small variations and runs lots of similar stories.

Note that this is why Jon Katz stories are pretty worthless as trolling material - by the time you've found the article and prepared a troll there's already 50+ posts on it, most of them flaming Jon Katz anyway :)

* Exposure

Once you've got your troll in, you need people to actually read it. You also want replies - /.ers are more likely to read your troll if it starts a large thread. You also want to remember that some people have set their comment thresholds to values higher than 0 - to get the attention of these you either want to get your post moderated up (see Style, below) or get a reply which gets moderated up to 4 or 5, in which case your troll becomes visible to all.

* Accounts

An alternative to the time-honored tradition of AC trolling is that of creating a troll account. This gives you the advantage of posting at 1 rather than 0, and slashbots are more likely to take you seriously, especially if you at least sound reasonable. If you do this, try to avoid posting stuff where it is obvious you're a troll under the account - post it anonymously instead - some slightly more canny readers actually check your user info before they reply. Not many though :)

The ultimate goal of the troll account is to secure the +1 bonus, which is currently received once you hit 26 points of Karma. To get there, employ the techniques of karma whoring that we see every day on /. and watch the karma roll in. And of course once you get the +1 bonus, the world is your oyster in terms of /. Posts made at a default of 2 hit even those people with the threshold of 2, are more likely to get moderated up even further if they are at all coherent, and people tend to lose their critical thinking abilities in the face of the +1 bonus. Milk it for all it's worth.

* Layout

To get people reading it a troll needs to be easily readable. Make sure you break it down into easily digestible paragraphs, use HTML tags where appropriate (but always make sure you close them properly) and use whitespace appropriately.

* Size

Generally a troll shouldn't be too short, otherwise it'll get lost in the crowd. A workable minimum is a coupl

HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

I love it when you faggots mod me down as Flamebait because you don't like my opinions.

Well guess what? Hitler was right, Jews suck, DOWN WITH ZIONISM!

It's official.

[Blaede]

England has now become the USA.

It seems to be unfair punishment indeed

[erroneus]

Upon first detecting the offense, they should have booted him.

The University's behavior was clearly out of line in that it was unduly cruel and unusual. Further, it was a drain on resources they were not entitled to since they had decided from the beginning they were not going to give him the degree he was spending time trying to acquire.

His method of acquisition was inappropriate but punishment should fit the crime. The punishment itself, in this case, was fraudulent since they decided from early on that he would be removed.

He should have a complete refund awarded to him though of course he should receive no degree since he didn't earn it.

Nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

The picture you are trying to portray is laughable. I assume you pointed out this fact to your tutor/lecturer?

This would never happen. I've caught many plagiarists in my time and for them to get "done" would require a more than cursory look into the circumstances.

This just nonsense. Even if you hadn't just invented it, it would still be stupid. Oh, so you are saying that I, as you lecturer (nb. on laughably low pay) should compile a database not only about you, but also spend my time linking to any and all website you have contributed to? I should be archiving your Slashdot comments now right? Just so I don't accidentally accuse you of plaigarism? Don't talk whack sunshine.

Re:Wow next thing you know...

[Nasarius]

5. She got third degree burns.

Jesus Christ, people. If that's not too fucking hot, what is?

Re:The Only Problem...

[x over ln(x)]

I think that in order for the indirect statement to work correctly, it should really be:

Cogito me cogitare, ergo cogito me esse.

I think myself to think, therefore, I think myself to exist.

In Soviet Russia...

[Anonymous Coward]

the PLAGIARIST sues the UNIVERSITY.

Re:smoking is different

[Troed]

How hard is it to get that it's only _americans_ that are stupid enough to BOTH do something harmful and THEN blame it on someone else AND try to get money out of it?

Really - look it up sometime. The rest of the world is _still_ laughing.