Do Students Turn Over Their Rights When They Turn in Their Papers? A Case Study of Turnitin.com

Abstract

Students around the world submit their essays to an online anti-plagiarism service known as Turnitin.com. Four students sued the service for copyright infringement because Turnitin added their papers to its database for use in future anti-plagiarism detection. The students lost their case, in both the district court and more recently in the court of appeals, based on a fair use analysis. This paper examines not only the copyright and fair use analysis that the court employs, but also the contracts and privacy issues that are applicable to this case.