Students appeal ruling favoring plagiarism detection service

McLEAN, Va.—A group of high school students from northern Virginia and Tucson, Ariz., is appealing a ruling by a federal judge tossing out their lawsuit against a plagiarism-detection service.

Four unidentified students, most of them from McLean High School, last year sued the owners of the Turnitin system, which is used in 7,000 high schools and colleges across the country.

The students alleged that the system amounts to copyright infringement because the students were required to submit their reports to Turnitin's database.

Turnitin uses computer technology to check student reports against a database of known works for evidence of plagiarism.

Students acknowledged that they agreed to Turnitin's "Clickwrap Agreement" in which they clicked "I Agree" to Turnitin's Terms of Use, in which users agree to release Turnitin from any form of legal liability.

The students argued, among other things, that the contract should be considered null and void because it was made under duress -- students who refused to use the system would receive a zero on their assignments.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton in Alexandria rejected the argument in a ruling last month, ruling that any duress on the students was placed on them by the school system, not by iParadigms, the Oakland, Calif.-based owners of Turnitin.

And even if the students had been under duress caused by iParadigms, Hilton said it wouldn't matter.

"Schools have a right to decide how to monitor and address plagiarism in their schools and may employ companies like iParadigms to help do so," Hilton wrote.

Earlier this month, the students filed an appeal of Hilton's ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

And on Tuesday, iParadigms filed a cross-appeal of a separate ruling by Hilton denying the company's demand for reimbursement of its legal fees from the students.