<p>[Fair</a> Use Bolstered by Student-Cheating Detection Service | Threat Level from Wired.com](<a href=“Fair Use Bolstered by Student-Cheating Detection Service | WIRED”>Fair Use Bolstered by Student-Cheating Detection Service | WIRED) </p>
<p>Aha! Not only did the students lose their case at trial and on appeal, but there is a possibility of a countersuit. </p>
<p>"According to the lawsuit, which was rejected by the federal trial courts as well, Arizona and West Virginia students claimed they copyrighted their classroom essays, one entitled “What Lies Beyond the Horizon,” and demanded that their papers not be archived in the cheat-detection system.</p>
<p>“Still, the decision (.pdf) left open a countersuit for monetary damages by the defendant, iParadigms, which owns the internet site in question. That issue concerns the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the same federal statute that was used to criminally convict Lori Drew last year in the infamous MySpace trial.” </p>
<p>I always thought that the copyright claims against Turnitin.com were a classic example of a “strike suit,” a bogus legal claim to shake down a defendant for a monetary settlement.</p>