Turnitin.com - Fair Use or Copyright Infringement?

In October 2006, four students from Arizona and Virginia high schools took Turnitin.com, the plagiarism-proofing company, to court for copyright infringement. The company operates by archiving student-submitted works and other literary materials in a database. When a student submits his/her paper, the program scans the paper against the archived works. The plaintiffs argued that the company was violating copyright laws as it archived the materials without permission and made a profit. The judge, however, ruled in Turnitin.com’s favor, citing fair use. (Read more.) So, what exactly is fair use and how does it apply to this case?

Fair use is an exception to copyright in which the user has permission to use the material without permission from the copyright owner. Typically, fair use applies when a work is used for educational or research purposes. There are four items that are considered when determining if an item is fair use (from Copyright Act, Section 107):

1) “the purpose and character of the use, including whether such is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes”

2) “the nature of the copyrighted work”

3) “amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole”

4) “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work”

The guidelines for fair use are vague, leaving users, lawyers, and judges to varying interpretations. With the emergence of the electronic age, copyright issues and terms of fair use have become increasingly more complicated.

Turnitin.com argues that the “fair use” policy applies because it is used for educational purposes—as a teaching tool for students to learn about plagiarism. In addition, it is regarded as “transformative,” a common plea in copyright cases, in which the work is used for a purpose other than its original intent. In addition, it does not retract from students being able to profit from their work and in fact protects their work because it restricts others from copying it.

While Turnitin.com has won this battle, the plaintiffs’ lawyers plan to appeal…


References

Glod, M. (2007, March 29). McLean students sue anti-cheating service. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802038.html

Turnitin. (2008). Retrieved October 23, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnitin

U.S. Copyright Office. (2006). Copyright: Fair use (FL-102). Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved October 23, 2008, from http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html