Plagiarist sues university

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2004-06-03 08:36am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/educ ... 753065.stm

A student who admits down-loading material from the internet for his degree plans to sue his university for negligence.

Michael Gunn claims his university should have warned him his actions were against the regulations.

The Times Higher Education Supplement reports that he was told on the eve of his final exams that he would get no marks for his course work.

The University of Kent at Canterbury says students are warned about plagiarism.

Michael Gunn, a 21-year-old English student, told the Times Higher: "I hold my hands up. I did plagiarise. I never dreamt it was a problem.

"I can see there is evidence I have gone against the rules, but they have taken all my money for three years and pulled me up the day before I finished.

"If they had pulled me up with my first essay at the beginning and warned me of the problems and consequences, it would be fair enough.

"But all my essays were handed back with good marks and no one spotted it."

'Clear guidelines'

David Nightingale, the deputy vice-chancellor of Kent University said he would not comment on individual cases because the external examiners' meeting for the School of English would take place next week, when exam entries would be considered.

But he said: "I would stress that throughout their time at Kent, all students are given clear guidelines as well as practical advice and support as to what constitutes plagiarism. These spell it out that it is not acceptable under any circumstances.

"For example, in the School of English this information is provided in the faculty handbook and in the department's own handbook, both of which are issued to all students.

"All students are also encouraged to attend the regular workshops on study-skills run by the university which also provides on-line advice."

The University is running a pilot scheme which uses plagiarism detection software to analyse student work.

This will be used across the university this summer.

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2004-06-03 08:51am

Typical 'wacky' idiotic student.

It's the same at every university: plagarism is one of the first things you are warned about. There can be NO excuse.

Then again, common sense and 'wacky' students don't mix too well...

Evil Sadistic Bastard · Post by **Evil Sadistic Bastard** » 2004-06-03 08:53am

It certainly does seem like the guy got a shitty deal. Maybe the authorities thought that a last-minute denial of marks would be good punishment, but they should have at least told him and "fired for effect" by giving him a right screwing for plagiarizing; otherwise, how would he learn?

However, he shouldn't have been plagiarising in the first place. And since he continued copying from sources for the full three years of the course, and I strongly doubt that he didn't receive any student-body-wide antiplagiarism warnings, he probably deserved everything he got.

I'm divided on this issue, but if I got access to more facts my opinion might change...

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-06-03 09:09am

If this dimbulb didn't know that plagiarism was a huge no-no just on general principles going into university, it's a good bet that going into court he doesn't know about his own country's loser pays system either when it comes to lawsuits.

Wonder if in that event he'll next try to sue his barrister, his solicitor, or the Law Courts for not informing him of it in advance?

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2004-06-03 09:12am

I smell bullshit. At my Uni your reminded on every assignment sheet you hand in that plagerisim isn't allowed, and whenever you subit work you sign a reciept certifying that its all your own work.

I can't imagine others being too much different.

Vohu Manah · Post by **Vohu Manah** » 2004-06-03 09:20am

Oh, is that what that smell is? The guy is a retard, lets face it. He should have known better than to pull this sort of thing. And I don't think losing credit for said course is a harsh punishment.

Thinkmarble · Post by **Thinkmarble** » 2004-06-03 09:21am

People like him get my blood boiling.
If you plagiate you should be banned from studying at any university.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-06-03 09:30am

Plagiarise. Not plagiate.

Every assignment cover sheet has a plagiarism disclaimer. What a nonce.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-06-03 09:48am

I hope the courts throw out the case and disbar the ambulance-chaser who brought it into court. We were told what plagiarism was (and that it was against the rules) in the fourth grade! The most lenient teacher I knew of from elementary school and up would -at the least- make a student do the paper over. If you were caught cribbing, you could expect to flunk the course or in college or private schools, get expelled.

Plagiarism isn't just limited to students, though. Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz was just exposed as a plagiarist by DePauw Professor Norman Finkelstein. On his website (www.normanfinkelstein.com) Finkelstein shows line by line where Dershowitz's book The Case For Israel was ripped off from a book by Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial. Dershowitz even left the ellipses in the exact same places. Junior highschoolers do a better job of covering their tracks!

What's even funnier is that Peters' book is a work of crank pseudo-history that was exposed as a fraud twenty years ago. It's as though someone writing a book about the moon landing in 1969 had plagiarized from a book by the crackpots who claim the landing never happened!

Funnier still is that Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Chair of ETHICS at Harvard, and Larry Summers (President of Harvard) refuses to take action, or even investigate.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2004-06-03 10:27am

He's studying English, and he's plagiarizing papers, what can I say, he got what he deserved. The fact that he did it repeatedly is even worse, he should've been expelled and blacklisted so he can't even apply to university again for a good long time.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-06-03 01:20pm

Rye wrote:Michael Gunn claims his university should have warned him his actions were against the regulations.

Maybe the dipshit should go to orientation, and read the student manual, as every single fucking university and college these days has a huge part devoted to plagurism.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2004-06-03 02:01pm

It's all complete asstalk though, every student at A level has to sign stuff saying it's their own work, did he not realise it'd be stupid if people could just hand in stuff off the net?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-06-03 02:06pm

Rye wrote:It's all complete asstalk though, every student at A level has to sign stuff saying it's their own work, did he not realise it'd be stupid if people could just hand in stuff off the net?

Given he seems to show here that he's that stupid, obviously he didn't.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2004-06-03 03:38pm

Stupid little fucker deserved what he got. Hat fuckers like this shouldn't complain.

Little Bastard

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-06-03 03:50pm

Hopefully this gets out of court. Its probably never occurred to this imbecile that ignorance of the law is not a valid defense either.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-06-03 03:51pm

EDIT: bah. gets THROWN out of court. sodding mistakes. . .

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2004-06-03 03:57pm

What an idiot. The evils of plagiarism are drilled into your head in middle school at the latest, and they keep drilling it on a regular basis. He has no excuse.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2004-06-03 04:33pm

How did someone that stupid get into uni anyway?

Boyish-Tigerlilly · Post by **Boyish-Tigerlilly** » 2004-06-03 04:50pm

Wow. That is craptastic of him to do that. I hate people who piss the work and just cut/paste.

Some of the plagiarism rules are stupid, however. For example, MLA is screwed up when you site sources. There are like 40 ways to cite online periodicals, and it is very difficult to tell which one to use "sometimes." The whole system is tedious and unencessary.

Other than that, I think plagiarism is wrong.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-06-03 05:45pm

Wordsmyth wrote:It certainly does seem like the guy got a shitty deal. Maybe the authorities thought that a last-minute denial of marks would be good punishment, but they should have at least told him and "fired for effect" by giving him a right screwing for plagiarizing; otherwise, how would he learn?

How exactly did he get a shitty deal? He broke the rules, he paid for it. There's nothing unfair about that at all; the guy is an idiot and in a more just world he would be publicly caned for his stupidity and arrogance.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2004-06-03 06:14pm

Little faker got what he deserved. Some people actually work hard for a college degree, and their efforts are devalued everytime some cocksucker like this guy gets away with cheating. Fuck him!

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-06-03 06:19pm

It boggles the mind that he didn't think this would be bad anyway. I've had whole lectures on plagiarism each year at uni and the system was revised this last 12-months to include a "three strike" system. They may forgive a first mistake if you quoted something and didn't give credit, but anything more is your arse infront of a board of inquiry.

Funny story. A couple of years before I joined Lancaster, a student doing my biology course had to write a paper on some subject he wasn't too good at. Instead of spending actual time writing his take on the topic, he copied word-for-word a chapter from a textbook (alarm bells of common sense should be going by now), an old one mind, he found in the library. Feeling clever with himself, he handed the paper in and had a good weekend.

Upon collecting his marked paper, he found, to his horror, he got a zero and a nice note saying he was being investigated.

The total fucktard had played it safe by picking an old book, but copying it precisely and handing it in to the lecturer who wrote said book expecting not to be found out was a bit silly of him. Next time, he'll check the author of the book he copies... or maybe not since I recall he was banned from applying to any uni for a few years.

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2004-06-03 07:14pm

Let's not have strokes yet. Let's just sit back and watch him get laughed out of court.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2004-06-03 07:18pm

Virtually every syllabus I've ever received has a section on how plagiarism is unacceptable and against university policy.

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2004-06-05 02:21pm

Durandel wrote:Virtually every syllabus I've ever received has a section on how plagiarism is unacceptable and against university policy.

Not only that, but I believe there is also a disclaimer by most universities stating, in effect, ignorance of the rules does not exempt students from them, and that it is the student's responsibility to find out if what they're doing is illegal, not the universities' responsibility to baby-step them through each and every rule. This fool doesn't have a leg to stand on.

-Damien

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

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