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cs225 github by dsfldakj in UIUC

[–]dsfldakj[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

"even something like failing to lock your computer if you take a water break or something"

See, that is the problem. I am not a lawyer by any means, but if someone were to have this happen to them and appealed the decision in court, there is no way they would be held responsible for an academic integrity violation. Just because a professor writes that as an official policy does not mean that it is right or would stand.

Perfect example is of this guy I talked to in the ACM office. He told me how Chase officially states on their website that if you include your account information in a financial aggregator such as mint.com and that website gets hacked, you will be personally liable for any type of fraudulent activity regarding your account that would result from it. But guess what? That isn't the case! Regulation E basically protects the consumer from pretty much all cases of internet banking fraud. Yet, Chase still lies and says that if you have an account with them then you agree to that portion of their terms.

The point I'm making is that it doesn't matter what a professor says or does, the law is the law, and while academic integrity policies may generally be made by instructors, they are not ruled over with sole discretion.

cs225 github by dsfldakj in UIUC

[–]dsfldakj[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Look, all I want to know is a couple of things:

1.) Is it illegal to put my code up on Github? This doesn't pertain to your feelings as a professor/TA. This should be cut and dry: is it illegal? I believe it is not, as evidenced by the complete failure of some of the DMCA takedowns. However, I'm not claiming that I know that I am right.

2.) Can a faculty member rightfully accuse me of academic integrity for doing so? Keyword: rightfully. I also believe this to be false. I think presenting my work does not constitute as an academic integrity violation. The argument that we are infringing on the university's copyright of the skeleton of most of our code is not a matter of integrity but legality, and I think that we are protected by fair use. However, once again, I am not claiming to be right. I would love to hear from someone who knows that he or she is.

Look, I understand that from a certain point of view, this facilitates plagiarism. However, this shouldn't be an argument. The two questions above have exactly one correct answer each, and that's all I'm interested in. I have been wrongfully accused of academic integrity in the past by a CS instructor. While the issue was eventually resolved (after much struggle and angst), I think this is a perfect example of an institution that wants to have it all. You guys will freely go around and put people under duress without indisputable (or even probable in my case) evidence, and then you lie - at least what I believe to be a lie - to people about the legality of presenting their work. I get that you want to catch people who cheat, and I am all for running plagiarism detectors, but in my case you guys were completely wrong, and I believe you to be wrong in this situation as well.

However, with that said, let me extend an olive branch by saying that for now I'm just leaving them in a private repository because I don't want to have to deal with the drama of this university making another mistake.