Plagiarism Inc. 236
Here's an interesting article on the life and times of 24-year-old Jordan Kavoosi, who has made a business of plagiarism. His Essay Writing Company employs writers from across the country, and will deliver a paper on any subject for $23 per page. In addition, his company will get it done in 48 hours, and he guarantees at least a B grade or your money back. From the article: "'Sure it's unethical, but it's just a business,' Kavoosi explains. 'I mean, what about strip clubs or porn shops? Those are unethical, and city-approved.'"
He can be shut down rather easily. (Score:3, Interesting)
When I was in school, I posted copyright notices on EVERY single paper I ever wrote. That was my way of ensuring no one copied my work and allowed me to defend any potential charge that I may have been a plagiarizer myself.
Texts of term papers posted on other sites (whether university or a forum or by a student) are typically copyrighted works themselves, or represent a portion of one.
DCMA, anyone?
Even a handful of violations can send this guy packing.
Strip clubs and porn shops? EXCUSE me? (Score:1, Interesting)
'I mean, what about strip clubs or porn shops? Those are unethical, and city-approved.'
Well, thank you very much for the ethics lesson then, Mr Puritan! Unfortunately, you're wrong: there is nothing with either strip clubs or porn shops (as long as nobody is being exploited, but that's a given anyway and applies to ALL industries). Your business, however, very much is.
Fuck off.
Plenty of blame to go around here... (Score:4, Interesting)
While this scumbag's business is about 100% pure fail, anybody involved deserves exactly what they get.
I am having a hard time mustering up sympathy for his writers that aren't getting paid on time (or at all.) They knew going in that the entire concept was scuzzy, and it should not come as any sort of surprise that the CEO of this fine example of capitalism is himself a little lacking in the ethics department.
Interesting that there aren't any complaints from customers in that article... I wonder if Mr. Scumbag-in-chief actually has sufficient "boss" skills to avoid hiring lazy employees that would produce plagarized product?
SirWired
Re:He can be shut down rather easily. (Score:3, Interesting)
yea, this is clear, but what about.... (Score:5, Interesting)
but lets look at this with more grainularity:
at what point have I reached unethical in the following situations
1. I hire a typist to type my thesis (this is before computers)
2. I hire a graphic artist to draw my figures
3. I hire a presentation firm to do my powerpoint slides (beamer for me please)
4. I 'hire' (read: give the honor of doing my research) master's students to run my experiments / write code.
5. I 'hire' (read: give the honor of doing my research) phd students to draw conclusions on those experiments
Is the difference between buying an essay and being a research professor that thin? jeesh
Difference between morality and ethics (Score:5, Interesting)
There isn't a well-defined one, but there is a common, somewhat fuzzy, distinction often made with "ethical" wrong as the subset of "wrong" that deals ith behavior that fails an obligation to some particular other person (excluding any God or similar divine entity) without license, and "moral" wrong as the subset of "wrong" that deals with behavior that is wrong independent of any obligation to any other person (except, again, any God or similar divine entity.)
Under this model, fraud is often characterized as unethical, while recreational drug use is often characterized as immoral. (Both, obviously, presuming they are seen as wrong at all, and in general terms; its possible even under this general framework to construct an argument that either of those examples falls into the opposite category in some or all cases.)
Re:Plagiarism? or Ghost writing? Outsourcing? (Score:4, Interesting)
I was going to mod this but decided instead to comment. I faced a similar situation in my freshman year in college. My English professor's only comment for my final paper was "This paper gets an 'A' if you answer my verbal question correctly, and an 'F' if you do not." Needless to say, I did answer the question correctly and in the process learned a valuable lesson about how I should attribute sources more completely in my subsequent papers. (Thanks, Mrs. G!)