TurnItIn.com is legal--for now

A short blurb over at InsideHigherEd cites a recent ruling against four high schoolers arguing their rights of ownership were violated when they uploaded their papers to the antiplagiarism site.

The blurb goes as follows:

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by four high school students who claimed that Turnitin, a popular plagiarism detection service used by many schools and colleges, violated their ownership rights to their own papers. The ruling said that the box students check consenting to having their papers reviewed (and stored) makes it impossible for the students to sue. Because the students checked the box, they gave consent, even if they also stated their objections, the decision said. Further, the ruling defended the right of educational institutions to use services like Turnitin. “Schools have a right to decide how to monitor and address plagiarism in their schools and may employ companies ... to help do so,” the decision said. An appeal is expected. The decision text and a critical analysis of it appear on the blog of Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University who has been closely watching the case.

I have used the site extensively, catching mostly ignorance over cheating (more on this later).