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To: Amelia
The basis of this thread is that a growing number of sources will not allow FreeRepublic to use excerpted material, even when it is fully and properly attributed. This precedent could have a chilling effect on ALL research and discussion.

Yes, I do think the writer of a college thesis is (or should be) held more responsible for what they write than is (or should be) the fourteen year old who is just learning what a "term paper" is (and who is just learning how to use footnotes to cite excerpts).

As for complaining to the School Board - no luck there. (Are you surprised to learn they are overwhelmingly democrats?)
435 posted on 07/15/2004 5:44:56 AM PDT by StayAt HomeMother
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To: StayAt HomeMother
The basis of this thread is that a growing number of sources will not allow FreeRepublic to use excerpted material, even when it is fully and properly attributed.

You'll notice that my first post on this thread questions why this is. It actually seems prejudicial to FR in my opinion, because I know that LibertyPost, for instance, posts full text articles with a "free use" disclaimer at the end of each, and apparently has never been targeted by the copyright nazis. Of course, LP may not get enough readers for anyone to care.

Yes, I do think the writer of a college thesis is (or should be) held more responsible for what they write than is (or should be) the fourteen year old who is just learning what a "term paper" is (and who is just learning how to use footnotes to cite excerpts).

As far as I'm concerned, any child who is old enough to do research and write about it is old enough to learn that copying word for word is wrong. Yes, it takes a little longer to teach them to cite properly and that changing just one word is still plagiarism, but 14 year olds are certainly old enough to know that cutting and pasting is wrong.

As far as opinions go, however, I'm not sure I'd want to be held accountable now for what I thought and believed in my teens or even early 20s, because I'm sure I was much more liberal at that time.

As for complaining to the School Board - no luck there. (Are you surprised to learn they are overwhelmingly democrats?)

Any other like-minded parents? Particularly if you frame it as a privacy issue? School boards respond better to vocal groups than to one vocal parent, in my experience.

Many of those I've known have been polical animals, not educators, and either in it because of some perceived wrong their child has suffered at some point or because they like the power and recognition. They often seem to be driven by emotion rather than logic, and may not be well educated at all themselves. Of course, that's where I've lived, your experiences may differ.

436 posted on 07/15/2004 4:39:48 PM PDT by Amelia
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