Hoping to Identify Cheaters, a Professor Sues His Own Students

One professor goes to uncommon lengths to establish the scholars who he believes cheated in his class: He’s suing them in federal courtroom.

The professor, David Berkovitz, who teaches enterprise regulation at Chapman College in Orange, Calif., filed a lawsuit in opposition to an unnamed group of his college students — recognized solely as “Does” — after he found in January that the midterm and last exams he had given within the spring of 2021 had been uploaded to a preferred web site that college students use to share lecture notes, pattern quizzes, syllabuses and different paperwork.

In submitting the go well with, which accuses the scholars of copyright infringement, Professor Berkovitz hopes to power the web site, Course Hero, to establish those that uploaded the exams together with pattern solutions that had been additionally on the web site, his lawyer, Marc E. Hankin, mentioned on Thursday.

If profitable, Professor Berkovitz plans to show over the names to Chapman’s honor board, Mr. Hankin mentioned. As a result of Chapman’s enterprise college requires grading on a curve, Professor Berkovitz is frightened that college students who cheated could have unfairly triggered their classmates who performed by the principles to obtain grades decrease down on the curve.

“The ethical and moral failing however, the true concern is these college students are hurting their fellow classmates,” Mr. Hankin mentioned.

College students whose scholarships are tied to a minimal grade level common may lose these scholarships by no fault of their very own and will even have to depart college, he mentioned. “That’s the true hurt he’s making an attempt to forestall,” Mr. Hankin mentioned.

Whereas the lawsuit seeks damages and legal professionals’ charges, Mr. Hankin mentioned that Professor Berkovitz, who’s a lawyer, was “definitely not on this for the cash” and would possibly drop the go well with as soon as he was capable of establish those that uploaded the exams.

Course Hero, which isn’t named as a defendant within the go well with, mentioned it could adjust to a subpoena, which Mr. Hankin mentioned he anticipated to serve within the subsequent day or two.

“Our response is at all times in step with the regulation, so in the event that they produce a subpoena, we’ll assist them with their investigation,” Sean Michael Morris, Course Hero’s vice chairman of teachers, mentioned in an interview.

Mr. Morris described Course Hero, which was based in 2006, as a peer-to-peer examine platform by which college students and college members can add paperwork to share with each other “virtually like a library.”

The corporate permits college students who add paperwork to get free entry to some paperwork and sells subscriptions for larger entry. These subscriptions start at $9.95 a month.

Whereas the positioning has been accused of being a fertile floor for dishonest, Course Hero says on its web site that it “doesn’t tolerate copyright infringement, plagiarism or dishonest of any type.”

Anybody who misuses Course Hero “to achieve an unfair benefit; submits one other member’s content material as their very own; or violates any regulation, regulation, ethics code, or college code will likely be completely banned from the platform,” the corporate says on its web site.

Mr. Hankin mentioned that Professor Berkovitz found his exams had been uploaded to Course Hero after stumbling upon the positioning in January.

He believed that the exams had been uploaded by college students who had been dishonest in his Enterprise 215 class, which was taught remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He requested Course Hero to establish the customers who had uploaded the exams however was instructed by the corporate that he would want a subpoena, Mr. Hankin mentioned.

So Professor Berkovitz copyrighted his April 2021 midterm and Might 2021 last exams as a prerequisite to submitting a federal lawsuit accusing unnamed college students of copyright infringement.

The lawsuit, which he filed on March 10 in U.S. District Courtroom for the Central District of California, permits him to subpoena Course Hero for the scholars’ names and IP addresses and the dates they uploaded the exams, Mr. Hankin mentioned.

The go well with says the unidentified college students “infringed Berkovitz’s unique proper to breed, make copies, distribute, or create by-product works by publishing the midterm examination and last examination on the Course Hero web site with out Berkovitz’s permission.”

Mr. Hankin mentioned that Course Hero couldn’t be sued straight as a result of “we don’t have the proof they’ve completed something unsuitable apart from present a discussion board” for paperwork.

In an announcement, Course Hero mentioned that it “doesn’t tolerate copyright infringement of any type and employs a variety of preventative measures, investigation and enforcement insurance policies.”

“Course Hero by no means desires unauthorized content material on our website, and earlier than college students and educators add their content material, they have to conform to our phrases of use and tutorial honor code, which explicitly states they could solely add content material they’ve the best to add,” the corporate mentioned.

Mr. Morris mentioned he hoped the case would immediate “a lot bigger questions” in regards to the aggressive forces and pressures that lead college students to cheat. He referred to as that “a ripe dialog to be having when one thing like this comes up.”

Chapman College, which isn’t a part of the lawsuit, mentioned in an announcement that “with restricted exceptions, professors personal the copyrights to their work.”

“Professors are free to pursue the removing of their copyright-protected content material from web sites akin to Course Hero,” the college mentioned. “Nonetheless, we encourage school to make use of inner processes to work by scholar issues.”

Mr. Hankin mentioned the lawsuit seeks to “defend college students who didn’t cheat and maybe have the scholars who cheated disciplined.”

“We’re making an attempt to unravel who was it, how many individuals, and what precisely did they do?” he mentioned.