[Opinion] Internet Plagiarism

It is much easier for students to do their homework these days. What they have to do is to type in the word `homework` over the Internet. Then they will see a list of Web sites offering a wide variety of related information, which includes writings about books, trips and various subjects. It’s free and it doesn’t take pains at all. You can copy some of what you like and make a new one by rearranging them. The so-called Internet Plagiarism is so widespread that Gyeongju Wideok University had to hold a quite strange essay contest. Having hosted the fourth book essay contest, the university found out that of 1,010 applicants, only 5% submitted their own writings. The deliberation panel had to investigate, instead of evaluate, applicants, the university said.

▷It’s not that Internet plagiarism is happening only in this country. The U.S., where plagiarism has been considered a crime that steals intellectual property, is now seeing the surge of Internet cheating. According to the Center for Academic Integrity based in Duke University, the proportion of college students who say they write reports by copying and rearranging Internet data rose to 41% in 2001 from 10% in 1999, reported the New York Times. In addition, students increasingly think copying Internet data is not a dishonest act of learning. The number of professors who see the heavy dependence on the Internet as cheating also dropped to 51% in 2001 from 91% in 1999.

▷Of course, no one says it is okay to use at will things belonging to others without permission. And we have been told over and over again that the Internet is a sea of information and information is for sharing. Then the rub is whether to apply the intellectual property law to the wide variety of information available on the Internet. Dealing with technology evolving faster than the speed of light, it has become impossible to catch up with technology and regulate things about technology. If we could turn back the time, it would have been much better to let people surf the waves of technology.

▷Even long before the Internet, there were students copying reference books. It’s just that the object of copying has changed. Schools need to change the way they prepare homework for students. For the university, whose book essay contest ended up being an investigation, it might change the nature of the contest from writing to discussion. An anti-plagiarism software program was already unveiled in the U.S. And Microsoft and IBM teamed up for Palladium Project for hardware that prevents unauthorized copies of content. What counters the relentless technology is not an appeal to humanity or another Luddite movement, but a better technology. My small concern is that we might hear an anachronistic campaign like `Use Internet with care.`

Kim Sun-deok, Editorial Writer, yuri@donga.com