Anatiferous blog | Move every zig.

Howdy! This is my (William Reading's) webpage. At the moment, I only have this blog script and my gallery up, but I hope to get more stuff on this page at some point, or so I thought when I created this site years ago. Updates and shiny new copy to eventually go here. If you'd like to contact me to point out that I've done something to break XHTML/CSS standards or heaven forbid--look at my Vita--drop me a line at my e-mail address bill +spam @ [ELEPHANT] aggienerds.org. Simply remove "+spam", the spaces and the pachyderm along with its brackets and that address will reach me. I'm also available on Jabber/GChat/AIM/MSN with the same address above.

After some additional correspondance with the University, I received a reply from the Provost of Information Technology, Dr. Pierce Cantrell

Mr Reading,

William Reading wrote:
>I did raise this concern in another class and was instructed to not use
>turnitin.com in that course. However, I was never informed that the
>University came to this conclusion, which is primarily why I presented
>this issue again. I would very much appreciate it if you wouldn’t mind
>pointing me in the direction of the written documentation for that
>decision, as I was never given a satisfactory reply.

We asked the Office of General Council for the Texas A&M University System about the inclusion of a student’s paper in the Turnitin.com database. While OGC didn’t give us a written response to the attached memo, they verbally told me that we could proceed with the purchase and implementation. The second page of the memo summarizes the intellectual property issues and cites the Turnitin.com legal opinion . We see the inclusion of the student’s paper in the Turnitin.com database as “fair use that does not infringe any copyright.”

In your email to Paul Parrish, you cited concerns relative to the following paragraph about “Communications” using the Turnitin.com Web site:

>You grant iParadigms a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual,
>world-wide, irrevocable license to reproduce, transmit, display,
>disclose, and otherwise use your Communications on the Site or
>elsewhere for our business purposes. We are free to use any ideas,
>concepts, techniques, know-how in your Communications for any purpose,
>including, but not limited to, the development and use of products and
>services based on the Communications.
What is referred to in the above paragraph is “communications” on the Turnitin.com Web site, for example, chat rooms, bulletin boards, and other user forums. It specifically does not refer to the student papers in their database. This is explained in their Usage Policy .

regards,
-pierce cantrell

Although I’m not quite satisfied with the University’s evaluation of turnitin.com on ethical grounds, I can at least attribute them taking some sort of due diligance by bringing up intellectual property issues. The memo attached can be viewed here: Turnitin.com Legal Issues Memo.