[governance] Plagiarism and intellectual property

Sat Dec 17 09:21:35 EST 2011

Hi all,

I am jumping in to the discussion to what Deidre and Jovan wrote. I am an
educator and plagiarism always concerned me. The anti-plagiarism software
can be used by educators like me to check papers but it does not disregard
the issue that there is a disconnect of concepts on IP, copyright and
originality. I have confronted students especially with the use of
Wikipedia articles and not crediting their sources. Most of them feel that
since these articles are collectively written, they should be common
knowledge. That's not the point - it's still not their own and they should
at least credit their sources. I see very little remorse and sadly I was
even asked once how to remove the purple lines or hyperlinks to make it
look like non-hyperlink text when they paste them in Word. I almost fell
from my chair.

When I was growing up my view of research was flipping through pages of
textbooks in a library and following formats of citations, especially in
Literature classes. Then I was a senior in high school when I had a course
in Research Methodology. Then digital technology boomed a few years after
and actually re-defined how students understand the concepts of copyright
and originality. This generation of students grew up in an age where
everything seems to be suspended in cyberspace and believed that there
"seemed" to be no author. In other words, it's possibly okay for just
anybody to take. This is a misconception that I always discuss in my
classes. I don't excuse it but I try to understand why. Even when I
confront my students, they're not defensive - they just bluntly take it for
granted. Maybe, their concept of IP and the world they grew up are just not
on the same level of "gravity." If I were to stop this misconception, then
I have to find a solution. So my best recourse is to make a rubric for
grading that allocates bigger credit for "the use of proper citation
methods." I present my expectations; explain it in class and I expect my
students to follow them to get a good grade.  Well, it seemed to work for
years now. I'm only hoping that other professors (they encounter) will
adapt the same method. Maybe if it's not asking too much; maybe this
generation will grow up respecting other people's work and show more
creativity or singularity of their own. We have too many policy-makers out
there but we sometimes forget the very essential job of educating a
generation who are so disconnected. If you have kids, remind them. Ask them
what they did in school and if they mumble something like ".*.doing some
dumb paper.*." -  there's your cue to prod them about school work and
remind them about being creative. You can already tell that most of the
time some students couldn't care less about writing papers - they just want
to accomplish the tasks assigned to them. So they will write without giving
proper credit.

I am not sure if we are to just accept the notion that "grabbing" and
"mixing" is okay or "authenticity" is better than "originality." I still
think that there are creative people out there but if we are to "build"
creative thinkers, we have to change the notion that accomplishing tasks is
not merely doing your tasks to "*get things done asap*." Reading and
writing takes a lot of practice. The teaching pedagogy should involve
H.O.T.S - high order thinking skills - that will synthesize and proceed
original discussions and arguments into original work. This way, students
are less likely to be tempted to plagiarize or to cheat. *For real*.

Just my two cents.

Regards,
Charity G. Embley

On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 2:44 AM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>wrote:

> Dear Dierdre,
> No one is capable of making a clear distinction between what they have
> thought and written and what somebody else has thought and written —
> though academics sometimes like to delude themselves into thinking
> otherwise.  That is not to say that I don't think 'plagiarism' is a
> problem: just that isn't the kind of problem that you've painted it out
> to be.
>
> There's a beautiful essay by Jonathan Lethem looking at 'plagiarism' in
> art and culture: <http://goo.gl/2Yfoa> ("The ecstasy of influence: A
> plagiarism", Harper's Magazine, February 2007).  I'm not sure how much
> of it are his ideas, and how much those of Harper's editors.
>
> And a better-known rhyme (for the film-watchers, that is):
>
> You must remember this,
> A kiss is just a kiss,
> A sigh is just a sigh,
> The fundamental things apply,
> As time goes by.
>
> – Herman Hupfeld (though he might have stolen the idea from the
> gorse-kissing-fashion rhyme)
>
> Regards,
> Pranesh
>
> Deirdre Williams [2011-12-14 20:42]:
> > Jovan and Norbert,
> > Norbert first - of course I agree with you. How can you add to 'the total
> > of human knowledge' if you are apparently incapable of making a
> distinction
> > between what you have thought and written and what somebody else has
> > thought and written?
> > Jovan - I read the 2007 discussion with interest. I wonder whether in
> fact
> > it's 85% of students or 85% of work submitted - but then I never was much
> > good at statistics.
> > I thought perhaps that I was forcing an irrelevant digression from what
> > this list is about, but no, although I have changed the subject line to
> > make the point clearer.
> > Our world, virtual and physical, places great store on property and on
> > ownership. Our societies disapprove of and punish those who don't respect
> > what is implied by 'ownership' - the thieves. The production of
> > intellectual property is really HARD work; surely our sympathies lie with
> > the creator rather than with the person who stole and claimed ownership.
> > Ownership is not about money. It admits sharing. In fact the person whose
> > work was plagiarised was expressing 'willingness to share' by the act of
> > publication. He or she displayed trust and asked for honesty.
> > Jovan sent me off on a nostalgia trip to a rhyme I had learned as a
> child:
> > "When gorse is out of blossom,"
> > (Its prickles bare of gold)
> > "Then kissing's out of fashion,"
> > Said country-folk of old.
> > Thank you CM Barker, and Google for knowing about it as well. What does
> our
> > discussion have to do with gorse (or kissing)? Well the point is that
> gorse
> > always has blossoms, and kissing's always in fashion. So is honesty.
> > Honesty is the social Higgs boson that holds everything together. Without
> > at least some honesty I believe that societies would crumble and fail.
> > Plagiarism is a fancy name for lack of honesty, as it is also a fancy
> name
> > for theft. If we change the rules to allow plagiarism it seems to me that
> > we condone theft and encourage dishonesty and end up having to redesign
> our
> > society completely. And the way I see it we have very little, if
> anything,
> > to gain from the change.
> > Deirdre
> >
> > On 14 December 2011 13:02, Jovan Kurbalija <jovank at diplomacy.edu> wrote:
> >
> >>  Deirdre,
> >>
> >> You reminded me of an interesting discussion on plagiarism triggered by
> >> the news that 85% of university students in the United States are
> involved
> >> in some sort of plagiarism.  Can 85% of students be wrong? Should we
> invest
> >> in a better anti plagiarism software or start considering a new
> educational
> >> paradigm? Like with many other policy issues, there is a mix of causes
> and
> >> effects. Here is the link to the discussion from 2007 which is still
> valid
> >> today: http://wp.me/p81We-m
> >>
> >> Regards, Jovan
> >>
> >> On 12/14/11 4:12 PM, Deirdre Williams wrote:
> >>
> >> This discussion interests me for a slightly different reason.
> >> I have been wondering for some time now whether the norm about
> plagiarism
> >> isn't shifting as the norm about privacy seems to be doing. Privacy is
> >> still important but the things considered "private" seem to have
> changed.
> >> With the issue of plagiarism - we are being encouraged to "remix" from
> the
> >> existing. Does this carry with it the idea that, once published,
> >> information is "free"? When I asked this question on the Diplo ning I
> was
> >> assured that the "old" rule still obtains - if you borrow someone else's
> >> intellectual property you must acknowledge where/who it came from.
> >> But now I wonder again - in changing times is plagiarism not as wicked
> as
> >> it used to be?
> >> Deirdre
> >>
> >> On 14 December 2011 10:36, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> >>
> >>>> Given that the general reaction to this appointment could not have
> come
> >>> as a
> >>>> surprise to Mme. Kroes or her staff one really has to ask why it was
> >>> made.
> >>>
> >>>  Indeed. And she's legally obligated to give the reasons (when the
> >>> question is formally asked) why such a scandalous person was chosen
> >>> instead of conducting a more normal kind of search for a well-qualified
> >>> and suitable person to fill this role:
> >>>
> >>> According to Article 41 of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights [1],
> >>> which has been ratified by all EU member countries as part of the
> >>> Lisbon Treaty, there is a right to good administration which includes
> >>> in particular "the obligation of the administration to give reasons
> >>> for its decisions".
> >>>
> >>> [1] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/
> >>>
> >>> Greetings,
> >>> Norbert
> >>>  ____________________________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
> >>  --
> >> “The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir
> William
> >> Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>   <http://www.diplomacy.edu/Courses/Humanitarian.asp>****
> >>
> >> ____________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
> --
> Pranesh Prakash
> Programme Manager
> Centre for Internet and Society
> W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283
>
>
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