-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Wedlake [mailto:pwedlake@iparadigms.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 5:55 PM
Subject: Legal issues regarding Turnitin.com
I've attached our Registration Agreement that outlines some of the issues we
discussed yesterday. I have also attached our Usage Agreement and Privacy
Pledge.
Please contact legal@iparadigms.com if you need further assistance.
Below is our standard statement regarding the Copyright Issue:
We have spent considerable time and expense researching this issue. The
consistent opinion of our attorneys, plus those of the several schools that
have looked into it, including the University of California, is that fair
use does in fact allow us to store the student's papers. Here is a summary
of the reasoning:
We believe that use of the student's paper would be deemed fair because
rather than constituting infringement, the use prevents infringement of that
paper from occurring. The student's paper is only being used to catch
someone who might have stolen from it. That's the primary purpose of the
use and so it would likely be accorded even more deference than other
recognized purposes of fair use such as education, commentary and research
because its promotion of the underlying goal of the copyright statute, i.e.,
to promote creativity, is higher.
Most major recent fair use cases have identified "transformative use" as the
key question in fair use analysis. Transformative use means that the new
work is being used for a different purpose than the old work. In this case,
transformative use is present because the instructor is not using the paper
for its original purpose, i.e., turning an assignment in, research into a
topic, but is making a new use of the paper, i.e., checking for
infringement.
Of the four fair use factors, effect on the market for the work is generally
considered the most important. In this case, the instructor's use of the
student paper isn't affecting any reasonably likely market because it's not
reasonable to assume that individual students could start licensing papers
to individual teachers for this purpose.
Thus, although the issues are complicated, we feel confident that the use of
Student papers in our system does constitute fair use. That being said, a
few precautions can greatly simplify the relationship between student,
institution and Turnitin.com.
Informing students of the use of the system in each course syllabus using
the product is the most important tool. This is the stop sign that prevents
most of the plagiarism in the first place (which should be the goal), and it
also insures that students are agreeing to take that course with the
provision that their papers may be submitted to our system.
Having students submit their work, rather than instructors submitting it,
adds one more level of consent on the part of the student, as nothing is
done without the student's knowledge. We do not feel that this is required
to meet the requirements of fair use, but it certainly removes any
ambiguity.
Finally, offering the students an off-line alternative makes their consent
absolutely clear. For instance, as an alternative, the student could be
required to turn in a photocopy of the first page of all reference sources
used, an annotated bibliography, and a one page paper reflecting on their
research methodology. Such an option would be unlikely to be chosen by any
students, but if they did choose it, the chances of plagiarism would also be
vanishingly thin.
Best regards,
Paul Wedlake
Director of Sales
iParadigms, LLC., developers of Turnitin.com/Plagiarism.org
1624 Franklin St., Suite 818
Oakland, CA 94612
Ph: 510-287-9720 ext. 223
Fax: 510-444-1952
URL1: www.turnitin.com
URL2: www.plagiarism.org
URL3: www.iparadigms.com