To Catch a Thief

The Internet has made plagiarism simpler than ever to do but it has also made stolen work easier to spot. There are tools available that can help people find out when others are using their work without permission. These tools upload and scan the work in question and are able to highlight similarities between numbers of original sources. These tools are being used in schools to prevent students from cheating and in companies to retain their integrity.

A man by the name of Jonathon Bailey found out he was being plagiarized and responded with the website: PlagiarismToday.com. Bailey sees RSS feeds as a potential problem because re-using content in a different server can eliminate credit to the original website or author. He recommends that people concerned about their text-free documents should place a watermark over them. When people discover plagiarism, they should talk to the source of it before doing anything drastic and send a Digital Millennium Copyright Act violation notice as a last resort.



Original Article

Have you ever experienced someone plagiarizing your work? If you did, how did you handle it? If not, what would you do if you found someone had?

Content Control

Leah Hoffman begins by giving the reader a refresher on the history of piracy in the music business. Before the phonograph, copyright issues were never a problem. Artists would depend on the sales of their sheet music for money. Once pieces could be recorded and sold, copies of audio recordings needed to be copyrighted. Now with the Internet, many music fans are used to getting their favorite songs for free through such file-sharing networks as BitTorrent and Limewire.

Digital rights management (DRM) has attempted to limit buyers from sharing copyrighted material. It has prevented format conversion of music and DVDs but it has proved easy to defeat and sometimes causes problems for ordinary consumers. Recently, Amazon and Apple have created ways to sell DRM-free songs. While piracy is still an issue here, experts believe that the easy and cheap access to high-quality music will shrink the piracy market.

While DRM is playing a less important role in the music industry, it’s becoming increasingly used in others. A movie bought on iTunes or a DVD purchased from the store has restrictions on making copies. The DRM is also preventing unapproved technologies from coming out to prevent copyright infringement. In publishing, the Authors Guild recently made a settlement with Google in which the authors of books on Google would be compensated for Internet user’s use of their work. The settlement is not yet finalized but it’s causing some controversy as to whether it’s a missed opportunity for a high level of fairness in the digital age and whether is will cause a monopoly problem.

Original Article

Do you think that DRM has prevented you from pirating? Are you still able to get free downloads of music, books and movies relatively easy?

The Mind of a Plagiarist

This article discussed plagiarism in a specific case study involving a student studying for his graduate degree. The student submitted a paper that seemed unoriginal. When it was checked by his teacher (using turnitin.com) it was found to be a verbatim compilation of many online sources, including a doctoral thesis. The professors that this student was dealing with didn’t handle this situation right away (their University has a plagiarism policy much like that of UWO, resulting in expulsion) because he was concerned that the student just didn’t realize that what he had done was wrong. Culturally, using others’ work is often viewed as a sign of respect, even if the information goes unattributed. However, as this continued to happen, it became clear that the student had some idea concerning what he was doing. He was finally expelled after plagiarizing in six essays.
The Internet has made plagiarism that much easier and it is that much more important for institutions of higher learning to develop a policy to handle plagiarism. Many sites like turnitin.com have arisen, allowing teachers to submit student papers which are then analyzed for originality. However before this happens, the article states that it is extremely important that teachers are able to discuss plagiarism with students and make them aware that it is a practice that will not be tolerated. Teachers need to be trained in ways to discuss this with students without making accusations in order to give the students a chance to understand that what they are doing (if they are plagiarizing) is wrong.

Original Article

Question: What can we do to better educate our students about avoiding copyright/plagiarism when using online resources?

Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access?

This article discusses the ongoing problem of copyright violations pertaining to pirated music, movies, etc. via peer to peer file-sharing sites. It is estimated that as much as half of all Internet traffic involves this file sharing. Many lawmakers are brainstorming ideas to curb the illegal downloading of music and movies along with other copyright violations.

In Paris, Nicolas Sarkozy proposed taking away the Internet connections of those who had repeatedly violated these copyright laws. Citizens were overwhelmingly against this proposal, and in a pre-emptive move, the European Parliament moved to a resolution that states that Internet use is a “fundamental freedom” that could only be restricted by a court of law. Many file sharing sites are also trying to protect users by offering them services that will block their Internet addresses from being seen by those who may be trying to prosecute them.

The content owners themselves have been luckier in the courtroom, often winning suits filed against the pirates. Many of the file-sharing sites are also being shutdown or forced to relocate. Tim Kuik, the director of an antipiracy organization in Holland “says there is a paradox in the way the public views copyright online and offline. ‘If you put 200 VCRs in your garage and start making and selling copies of films, you will get a visit from the police…If you do it from a Web site, everybody says, ‘Hey, freedom of information.’’”

Original Article

Question: At what point should people have their internet access denied them (if at all)?

Plagiarism and Technology: A Tool for Coping with Plagiarism

The article, Plagiarism and Technology: A Tool for Coping with Plagiarism discusses online plagiarism detection systems and if they would be smart for teachers to use and also whether or not using a detection system would lower the student’s use of plagiarism. A study was done on 129 research papers by college students throughout five semesters. The students were told that their papers would be electronically checked for plagiarism before they turned them in.

The results of the research showed that fifty percent of the papers had some form of plagiarism in them. The first semester is the semester where the most students plagiarized. This could have been because in the following semesters, the students were told that some of papers in the first semester had plagiarism in them. It was discovered that students are less likely to plagiarize if they think they will be detected.

According to this article, it would be a good idea for instructors to use a plagiarism detection system. It does not take too much time. It was also shown that if students know that they will be downgraded for plagiarizing and that it can be easily detected, they are less likely to plagiarize.

Plagiarism and Technology

Question: If you used a plagiarism detection system as a teacher, would you tell your students that you were going to use it before they handed in their papers?

Cheating in Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism

The article, Cheating in Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism, discussed cheating on online assessments. The article explains that some people believe cheating should not be a problem if the class is well designed. Some ways that may eliminate cheating are using group projects and by having continuous paper-pencil tests. The problem comes in when there are online-assessments.

This article gives three main problems that occur with cheating on online tests. The first problem is, “Getting assessment answers in advance.” If students do not all have to take the test at the same time, they are able to discuss the answers with those who have already taken the test. One way to alleviate this problem is by drawing from a large pool of answers so that the questions on the test are random. One down fall of this idea is that this may make the test unfair, where some students may get harder questions than others. Students may also be able to log on as the instructor and see the answers or use spyware to see other students’ answers to the questions. A second problem is, “Unfair retaking of assessments.” It may be possible for students to retake the test as many times as they would like even if it was not intended by the instructor. This can be done by breaking the connection to the server, or setting the clock of the computer back. The third problem is, “Unauthorized help during the assessment.” It is not possible to really know the person is who they say they are while taking an online test. Students could use someone else’s password.

According to this article, it is not advised to use online-testing if at all possible. If however, online-testing is the only option, a short answer test would be the best to give. The article also gives a list of ways to prevent cheating.

Cheating in Online Student Assessment

Question: As a teacher do you feel it would be better to take out online-testing completely, or is it better in some situations to give an online-test rather than paper-pencil?