Turnitin and fair use

Turnitin and fair use

Since plagiarism *is* a problem, for teachers without enough creativity to think up new assignments... Using an automated plagiarism scanner is a great solution for lazy teachers. (I have worked with "plagiarism scanners" for computer code and seen enough "false positives"; Turnitin must have its share of them too.)

Your proposed legal solution does not solve the issue that minors can not enter into contracts; it is the parent/guardian that should sign the contract for the student. A second issue is that contracts signed under pressure are not enforcible... You can argue that the student was forced to accept the Turnitin EULA under undue threat from the school (fail your class). This legal discussion is better done on another website though.

Why is "plagiarism" a concern at all?

If school reports are being used as a "rating system" by employers as a replacement for a
proper job interview, then that's the employer's problem, not the schools.

If schools are using the fear of a bad school project mark as a threat to force students to
work harder, then they should consider better motivations.

This reminds me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, where he read/commented on
projects but refused to give any marks because the point was to learn, not to be graded. Many
pupils hated it. I suspect that the types likely to be/become successful open-source
developers would not be bothered though..