Long Day of a Fighting For My Copyrights and Academic Rights

[CalledToServe]

Well today has been an interesting day. I have spent the bulk of the day fighting for my copyrights at school against certain professors that require me to use an unethical plagiarizing detection software. However, using said software forces me to give up my copyrights to said company with zero compensation.

What software you ask? Why it's none other than Turnitin. This company states that they will take your school work and put it into their database. You do not receive compensation for it, while they force you to accept their terms of use through the granting of a perpetual, worldwide license for them to profit off of your work.

Turnitin maintains a database of over 200 million websites, journals, and self-submitted papers to sell a subscription to schools to use to detect students plagiarizing. Last time I checked stealing from someone then profiting off their exploited work is unethical and immoral.

 

[DarkHorseRising]

Well today has been an interesting day. I have spent the bulk of the day fighting for my copyrights at school against certain professors that require me to use an unethical plagiarizing detection software. However, using said software forces me to give up my copyrights to said company with zero compensation.

What software you ask? Why it's none other than Turnitin. This company states that they will take your school work and put it into their database. You do not receive compensation for it, while they force you to accept their terms of use through the granting of a perpetual, worldwide license for them to profit off of your work.

Turnitin maintains a database of over 200 million websites, journals, and self-submitted papers to sell a subscription to schools to use to detect students plagiarizing. Last time I checked stealing from someone then profiting off their exploited work is unethical and immoral.

Talk to your student union. Most schools have negotiated a policy that they can't force you to use turnitin. As an example, at my school we can submit our rough notes or an annotated bibliography instead.

If your school doesn't have any allowance for that, you could (if you had the time and inclination) spearhead such an initiative.

 

[CalledToServe]

Talk to your student union. Most schools have negotiated a policy that they can't force you to use turnitin. As an example, at my school we can submit our rough notes or an annotated bibliography instead.

If your school doesn't have any allowance for that, you could (if you had the time and inclination) spearhead such an initiative.

Thank you for the advice DHR. One thing I absolutely despise is someone stealing from another. I will be up for a great fight with the school about this because it's unethical and immoral. I go to a Christian university to get my degree in Christian Ministries. This has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, especially since my English Comp 1 professor linked for this week's discussion the marketing page for Turnitin, instead of MLA or WPA. I told her what the company does and how it flat out steals from students and other copyright holders.

Here's part of my reply to my professor: I am very protective of my copyrights, in case you hadn't noticed. Due to my experience with this company I do not trust any other company when it comes to my work. Now, I cannot even trust my college professors with my copyrighted material because of the agreement with Turnitin and MACU. It's a sad day when a minister in training cannot even trust his professor, at a Christian university, to respect his rights as an individual to be innocent until proven guilty, the copyrights of all work he writes, his privacy as an individual, his academic freedom to explore the free exchange of ideas, and learn from an academic institution he pays for.

I think this sums it up nicely about how I feel.

 

[Classik]

I faced a similar problem. I saw people using it the way they wanted. I didn't fight the school.

What they tell you is: YOU HAVE MADE A GREAT NAME

 

[farouk]

There must be some Supreme Court rulings which are at least marginally relevant.

Maybe paper your email headers with highlights from them; which might cause greedy rivals to hesitate to sue you. Might be worth a try.

 

[CalledToServe]

There must be some Supreme Court rulings which are at least marginally relevant.

Maybe paper your email headers with highlights from them; which might cause greedy rivals to hesitate to sue you. Might be worth a try.

I'm going to talk to my graduation coach and have them put into my academic file that I refuse to use Turnitin and on what grounds. As the copyright owner, the school has to comply with my wishes.

 

[CalledToServe]

Here's my letter to the head of the graduation coaches.

I would like to talk to you about my refusal to use the unethical business Turnitin in your capacity as the head of the graduation coaches for Christian Ministries. My refusal stems from my copyrights to the work I produce while in school, which iParadox LLC makes a profit off of without compensating the students who submit. Through their User Agreement, a student gives up any and all copyrights through the grant of a perpetual license that grants iParadox LLC to reproduce a student's work without compensation. iParadox maintains a database of all submitted work and does not compensate the authors, but instead profits off of said database. Their business model says that it's unethical to steal, but we're going to steal from unsuspecting students and profit off of their work.

A related reason is that my professors are not my literary agents and therefore cannot act in this capacity since under current copyright law the copyright holder determines who their agent is through a contract. There is an implied consent between an instructor and a student that all work the student does is privileged information that the instructor has to respect the student's rights to privacy, innocence until proven guilty, and the ownership of their copyrights that is contained in the work of their creation. I come to you with this because I refuse to participate with Turnitin and would like the faculty to know in my personal file that they do not have authorization to upload my work to Turnitin since I own the copyrights to said works. iParadox LLC will release a copy of a student's work on the authorization of the professor that originally uploaded and/or taught the class. This puts said professor in control of the copyrights for how and when distribution of said work is released and to whom. This action makes the professor to act as an agent under current copyright law.

I cannot even trust my college professors with my copyrighted material because of the agreement with Turnitin and MACU. It's a sad day when a minister in training cannot even trust his professor, at a Christian university, to respect his rights as an individual to be innocent until proven guilty, the copyrights of all work he writes, his privacy as an individual, his academic freedom to explore the free exchange of ideas, and learn from an academic institution he pays for.

 

[CalledToServe]

Score one for the little guy. I got a reply back from the Director of Student Services. She said that she is sorry that I feel that way, but she will find out a way to turn that off in my online learning.