Election Officials Hoping E-Voting Machines With Paper Receipts Fail

Student Caught Plagiarizing From The Net To Sue University

from the this-is-what-we-teach-our-children dept

Thu, May 27th 2004 8:18am — Mike Masnick

No one takes responsibility for anything these days. Just ask a student who has been told that he won't get a degree after he was caught plagiarizing his essays from the internet. What does he do? He threatens to sue the school for accepting his money and giving those plagiarized essays passing grades. What's not entirely clear from the article is when he got caught. If he was caught early on, he might have at least a tiny argument that the University should have told him earlier that he wouldn't get a degree. Either way, he basically admits that he plagiarized most of his essays from day one.

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11 Comments

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NOBODY, 27 May 2004 @ 8:35am

No Subject Given
If it was that big a deal, they never should have passed the papers.
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Dony Songbrooke, 27 May 2004 @ 10:04am

Too bad, so sad
Oh boo hoo!

When will people learn that a University degree is a privelage, not a right. You have to work hard to get one.

If you want to cheat your way through life, don't complain when you get scammed yourself.
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xman, 28 May 2004 @ 1:02am

Regs
I bet that he hasn't a leg to stand on - the University regulations will have a policy on plagiarism and how it is handled and he will have signed up to that when he entered.
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thecaptain, 28 May 2004 @ 6:02am

No Subject Given
I'm hoping he gets tossed out of court.

I mean, yes, if he was plagiarizing all the way and they knew and took his fees only to dump him in 3rd year, the university SHOULD be ashamed and SHOULD be reprimanded.

However, I don't think this guy should get a degree OR his money back. The lesson there should be harsh: you're a cheater, you got nailed and you deserved it.
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jim, 14 Jun 2004 @ 11:47am

he should have used
He should have used Homeworkster then he wouldnt have gotten caught.
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sam, 30 Jun 2004 @ 12:37am

More complex than this looks....
This situation is nowhere near as simple as it looks. Universities are already dumbing down standards to elevate their 'league table' results, to compete with other universities for scarce student cash. As a result (I have direct experience), *some* Universities 'disappear' proven plagiarism cases (just as they mark up final year fails to massage the cohort results) to make sure there isn't a dent in the overall performance.

The guy in question is an asshole - but an asshole produced (and in essence) supported by a cash- and 'diversity-' (read "cash") obsessed UK university system. His legal action (if it happens) will do one thing for certain: it will further emasculate the already spineless academic management community and ensure that even less 'action' in taken over plagiarism in future.

Together, the cow-like 'consumer' - graduating year on year with progressively less and less critical and conceptual ability - and the cow-ardly university are colluding together to turn 'education' into a sad, and culturally catastrophic joke.

Those of you who don't care about reading and writing (and the way that exercising that grey organ creates... er.... intelligence) - well, you ought to be celebrating. You are powerful! The Universities of the UK are actually ON YOUR SIDE! They are responding to how hard or easy YOU the consumer want education to be. How challenging or how entertaining YOU want it to be.

Above all, you the student = money. Just as all University Counsellors are charged with 1) retaining you as a student 2) helping you with your problem IN THAT ORDER OF PRIORITY, the challenge for Universities is to compete with other universities to get you and keep you.

Students no longer compete with each other and themselves for the privilege of studying at and graduating from university (NO MATTER WHAT THE GOVERNMENT TRIES TO TELL YOU!).

The crime of plagiarism isn't that some wimp of a student takes the easy way out. That's the way we expect most people to react initially when faced with a challenge to develop themselves. The crime is that the academic sector - through its cowardice in the face of economic pressure - is complicit in failing YOU, the student, in its responsibility to help you develop the only thing that will serve you well in the future - your mind and its capacity to question, analyse and invent.
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jhsdflajsh, 5 Jun 2007 @ 3:45pm

Re: No Subject Given
ummm thanks yew ... thats so true ! like wow ! come on now if yew new he plagiarised from the start then they should have said sumthing !
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jhsdflajsh, 5 Jun 2007 @ 3:45pm

Re: No Subject Given
ummm thank yew ... thats so true ! like wow ! come on now if yew new he plagiarised from the start then they should have said sumthing !
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yougetwhatyouwant, 23 Jul 2007 @ 5:54pm

my school has ZERO tolerance for plagiarism, it makes sense. If things look too good to be true, there's a reason: you gotta work hard, tout les temps!
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hockeylover, 22 Apr 2008 @ 5:56am

thats stupid! how did he get into collage? he cheated through the whole thing!
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Tweetybyrd, 27 Aug 2008 @ 5:34pm

Come on now
The University has a system to run papers through. They knew all along. when they said money was the root of all evil, they did not lie. Many people use writing services the thing is you should know to change it or use it as a format to write the real paper it still lessens your load and it's as if you are payin for the research. You have to play surgeon if you want a paper with your own thoghts (add this, delete this, change this and reistall that). Bottom line you have to check behind anybody before you take their credit. Free resources are available on the net to check plagiarized papers. He was just an asshole to depend solely on someone else.
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