[Air-l] turnitin issue

[Barry Wellman]

Dear AOIRers,

A colleague teaching another course has come across an issue with an
undergrad who refuses to hand in her term paper because the faculty
member's course requires that all papers also be submitted to
Turnitin.com.

The student claims that this violates her own intellectual property
because Turnitin reportedly keeps copies for future plagiarism searches.

As a supposed ICT & society "expert," my colleague came to me for advice.
My first thought was horsefeathers.

However, I am wondering if there is any precedent or case law on this in
Canada or the US. (EU would be too different, I think.)

I am not interested in the ethics or the morality of Turnitin, but in how
other situations have been resolved.

Thanks,
 Barry Wellman
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  Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director
  Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
        for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
 _____________________________________________________________________