Re: term papers on the Internet?

[Barbara Johnson <bjohnson@NETROPOLIS.NET>]

Dear Everyone:
Some of you may be a member of the FYI listserv which deals with technology
and the K12 setting (not hardware/troubleshooting) and have seen this
posting, but I really thought it might interest the group as a whole and
John okayed the forward. There are links at the bottom that may be of
interest to you. I have not personally looked at the sites (sorry to post
blind).

Food for thought--

Date:    Sat, 2 Aug 1997 16:53:55 -0400
From:    John Walker <jwalker@TOR.HOOKUP.NET>
Subject: Texas, college go after cheaters

Texas, college go after cheaters

By Courtney Macavinta
 July 31, 1997, 1:35 p.m. PT

Students who get caught cheating in class could be kicked out of
school. So to peek at others' papers, some are going online, where
their teachers usually aren't looking.

But at least one school, South Plains College in Texas, has caught
wind of the virtual "black market" for term papers and essays. James
Taylor, vice president of academic affairs, sent out letters to more
than 40 Web sites Monday, warning them that a new state law goes into
effect in September to prohibit the "selling of term papers and other
materials for the purpose of cheating in institutions of higher
education."

Although most of the sites are based outside of Texas and don't
accept cash for essays, Taylor said he was encouraged by a Net-savvy
instructor to inform online term paper clearinghouses that they could
be fined $500 for soliciting or selling papers to South Plains
students who live in at least 28 towns in Texas.

"When students buy papers, use them, or collect them, even for free,
it's dishonest and plagiarism," Taylor said today. "At this point, we
were simply providing notice that the law will change. I don't know
what we'll do beyond that, because we haven't identified any sites
that are selling papers specifically to our students. If we found
that this was happening, we would get them prosecuted."

Most of the sites scoffed at the threat, invoking the right to free
speech or stating that Texas has no jurisdiction over their business
practices, which recent court rulings on the Net both support and
contradict. Like the obstacles facing state regulators when it comes
to overseeing online gambling, some site publishers told Texas it
wouldn't be able to enforce its term-paper scalping law in cyberspace
because the of the global nature of the medium.

The Net offers an easy, anonymous way to share or copy other
student's work, which makes educators nervous and wary. Sites such as
IvyEssays sell a single copy of a "successful" admission essay used
by students to get into Ivy League schools for $1 to $4. The Term
Paper Warehouse sells school reports for $6.50 per page. The Term
Paper Emporium provides free links to papers all over the Net.

The creators of the "no teachers allowed" Cheater.com site received
the letter but said they will not take down the entire site to keep
Texans out.

Cheater.com was launched in January by four high-school students in
Virginia. By becoming a member, surfers gain access to research
papers about history, English, geography, and science. Members don't
have to pay a fee but are encouraged to donate materials.

So far, the site has accumulated about 1,300 papers and 5,435
members. Some materials have allegedly been submitted by students
from prestigious universities such as Yale and Harvard.

"I'm a high-school student where the quickest, easiest way to cheat
is when a friend asks to peek at your homework in the hall. This
happens in school every day, and even in college. It's nothing new,"
said the 17-year-old founder of Cheater.com, who asked to remain
nameless. "In their eyes, it's illegal, but I'm just sharing the
resources. This is just like going to the library."

Unlike the library, Cheater.com purposely omits authors' names, and
essays don't always contain source lists, as "resources" usually do.
By typing in "Romeo and Juliet," for example, search results turn up
abstracts of the play, analysis of scenes, and essays. Some materials
contain footnotes while others don't. Many appear to be sections of
papers, not whole essays. So it might be difficult for a student to
simply slap their name on a document and turn it in.

But Taylor argues that Cheater.com isn't a reference site like
ResearchPaper.com.

"Given the name of the site--'cheater'--it gives you [an idea of]
what they think they're about," Taylor said.

Nevertheless, the creators of Cheater.com say Texas has nothing on
them because they've never accepted a dime from anyone. "We've never
sold anything on the site; it's totally free," said the site's
founder. "Plus this is a matter of our right to free speech."

The Cheater site has no policy as to how papers can or should be used
but is working on a draft now and will inform its members of the
Texas law. "I know that some kids may use these for cheating, and in
the long run, it's really going to hurt them," the founder said.

Links:

South Plains College: http://www.spc.cc.tx.us/

IvyEssays: http://www.ivyessays.com/

Term Paper Warehouse: http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/tpw/

Term Paper Emporium: http://www.lasalle.edu/~minm1/index.html

Cheater.com: http://www.cheater.com

Yale: http://www.yale.edu/

Harvard: http://www.harvard.edu/

ResearchPaper.com: http://www.researchpaper.com/

---------------------

Also in this issue:

- The Net Struggles Against Bureaucrats, Bills And Boundaries
- To Spam Or Not To Spam: Marketers Seek Answer
- IT Informer calls it quits
- A HACKER'S JOYRIDE THROUGH THE NET
  'The Strange Case of the World's Biggest Internet Invasion'


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