Google Bans Ads For Essay-Writing Services

llamapalooza writes "Google announced that it will ban essay writing firms from advertising on their site. (The prevalence of cheating on campuses has been discussed here before.) While universities have welcomed the move, the affected firms are claiming it will 'punish legitimate businesses.' Google has specifically banned 'academic paper-writing services and the sale of pre-written essays, theses, and dissertations,' which now join other items on the banned list such as tobacco, drugs, weapons, and prostitution."

Comments

Re:Banned list?

[1u3hr]

Agreed. If I want it I should be able to search for it.

You can still search, and find whatever you want. What they're doing is not seving ads for these products when you search for a related term.

Re:Not keen on this

[franksands]

Please, pay attention: they are not blocking search results. They are blocking ads that consist of "essay writing".

Re:It's not illegal, though

[dunelin]

Actually in Massachusetts, it is illegal to sell papers like this:

• Mass. General Laws, Chapter 271, Section 50. Sale of research papers, etc. and taking of examinations for another at educational institutions. Whoever, alone or in concert with others, sells to another, or arranges for or assists in such sale for another, a theme, term paper, thesis or other paper or the written results of research, knowing or having reason to know that such theme, term paper, thesis or other paper or research results or substantial material therefrom will be submitted or used by some other person for academic credit and represented as the original work of such person at an educational institution in the commonwealth or elsewhere without proper attribution as to source, or whoever takes an examination for another at any educational institution in the commonwealth, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.