Fodder for discussion.
______________________
Great Optimism,
Dutch Driver
Abilene, TX
Hm. Telephone: 915.698.7217
mailto:
ddriver@cs1.mcm.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri 10/24/97 12:02 PM
From: Bill Eadie (
weadie@natcom.org)
Selling term papers a free speech issue?
Reprinted from "Academe Today," the online service of the Chronicle
of Higher Education:
Term-Paper Lawsuit Raises Questions About Free-Speech Rights on Line
By JULIANNE BASINGER and KELLY McCOLLUM
Early this week, Boston University sued eight on-line term-paper
providers in federal court, accusing them of selling the papers over
the Internet for students to turn in for credit. But the companies
say the lawsuit violates their First Amendment rights to free speech
on line.
And experts say that suing term-paper services misses the larger
point: If professors paid closer attention to students' work, they
say, plagiarism would be harder to get away with.
The university's suit charges the companies with wire fraud, mail
fraud, and racketeering, as well as with violating a Massachusetts
law that prohibits the sale of term papers. This summer, the
university hired a paralegal and a law clerk to investigate the
companies, said Kevin Carleton, a university spokesman. The law clerk
posed as a student shopping for term papers.
The owner of one of the companies named in the lawsuit, Michael von
Plato, denied any wrongdoing and said he was "both scared and
angered" by it. Mr. von Plato, president of A-1 Termpapers, of West
Chester, Pa., said the university's investigation had amounted to
"outright entrapment" because of the way investigators had posed
their questions to the sellers. He added that the lawsuit threatened
his right to freedom of speech.
Those who wish to censor the Internet "have been unsuccessful in
going after atomic bombs and pornography," he said. "Now they're
coming after purveyors of term papers. This is another kind of
fascism."
Term-paper companies typically charge from $5 to $35 per page for
papers in their inventories, but they post disclaimers on their Wo
rld-Wide Web sites cautioning against plagiarism and warning students
that the papers are to be used only as research tools. For higher
fees, some of the companies will prepare papers on topics
specifically requested by students.
During the university's investigation, Mr. Carleton said, some of the
sellers offered to put the student's name, professor's name, and
course number on the paper's cover sheet, just as they would appear
on an original paper handed in for credit. In at least one instance,
a seller asked a student what typeface he wanted. Mr. Carleton called
the sites' on-line disclaimers "a sham."
Barton Lowe, the owner of Research Assistance, a company in Los
Angeles named in the lawsuit, also denied that his company had done
anything wrong. "I shouldn't be compelled to know what someone is
going to do with information I provide," he said.
Anthony Krier, a reference librarian at Franklin Pierce College who
keeps tabs on the on-line term-paper business, said he doubted that
Boston University would prevail in court. But he said that students
and professors must share some blame for the existence of term-paper
mills.
Mr. Krier maintains a list of term-paper sites that he distributes to
professors, deans, and librarians who request it. A professor who
suspects that a student acquired a paper through the Internet can use
the list to see if the paper came from an on-line source. When he
began compiling the list, early this year, it contained fewer than 30
term-paper sites. He now lists more than 70, some of which offer
papers at no charge.
Requests for the list can be sent to
kriert@rindge.fpc.edu Mr. Krier
also offers tips on using Internet search tools to investigate cases
of suspected plagiarism.
But catching students in the act isn't the solution to the problem of
term-paper mills, Mr. Krier said. The reason many students get away
with using purchased term papers, he said, is that professors who
teach large classes do not know the writing styles of their students.
Often, he added, those professors give the same boilerplate
assignments every semester. "They read so many of them, they don't
know if they're reading the same ones year after year," he said.
He recommended that professors require students to turn in
bibliographies and rough drafts along with their finished papers, or
that professors ask students to defend their papers in person.
Larry Spence, a professor of political science at Pennsylvania State
University, is also director of the Schreyer Institute, which
explores ways to improve learning at universities. He agreed that
large classes and unchanging syllabi contribute to the problem. "If
you can use a paper from one of these mills," he said, "then the
course hasn't been very well designed."
Dr. Spence said term-paper services were merely a symptom of a more
serious problem in college-level teaching. The problem "should be
giving people fits," he said, "but it's not going to go away with a
lawsuit."