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Re:story on plagarism on NPR



On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Bert J. Dempsey wrote:

> 
>   plagarism is plagarism... 
> 
>   the internet twist seems to me to be another example where the 
> 	readiness of copying and instant availability of information 
> 	perhaps tempts potential plagarists (?) more so than before.

...

>   all the PhD dissertations in CompSci at Virginia are now put up in 
> 	both postscript and PDF, which, as you might know, makes 
> 	searching and copying/printing subsections easier.

	It is notable that though dissertations have been widely available
for decades (centuries?) (most universities have dissertations available
to anyone who walks into the library, and many have second copies which
they offer through interlibrary loan) that the issue has only become a
major one in the last few years...because of the internet(?). 
	Alternatively, it's possible that a large amount of plaigarism was
done by diligent library-searchers and surreptitious photocopyers in the
past, but it was much less detectable by the offended copyright-holder or
the plaigarist's faculty advisor. 
	Or, perhaps, the ready availability of information now has changed
people's view of information...Perhaps to most people, it isn't really
plaigarism to download, edit, and reprint a file, whereas photocopying a
dissertation in a library, retyping it, and then publishing it seems
somehow more "wrong."


					Kim

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
stahk@ils.unc.edu

"You like to manipulate people, not in the cute and endearing way that I
do, but in a nassssty and ugly way!"
						-Murphy Brown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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