Google Bans Advertisements for Essay Writing Services

[skibladner]

The ban is intended to stop plagiarism by university students

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6680457.stm

[heinlein99]

What the hell business is it of theirs if students plagiarize?

I hate this kind of nannyism.

[LinkSales]

Come on Liberal Google. This isnt like you.

[uttoransen]

i have read this in there tos some time back, students essay and assignments etc content is not allowed in adsense!

a few of my friends that have essay sites, now runs text link ads!

[RovingCalypso]

Originally Posted by LinkSales

Come on Liberal Google. This isnt like you.

Its the second step now. The first was on youtube.

[checksum]

Some essay websites just got a lot poorer, while others got a lot lot richer.

I wonder how many clicks that would otherwise be going to AdWords are now going to be hitting to the natural SERP sites?

[Ganceann]

This should have been the case since the inception of adsense.

Plagiarism is equal to copyright theft or intellectual property theft and Google should not promote services that offer to undertake such policies.

However, there is a distinct difference betweem essay writing for students and proofreading/correction services. Hopefully google can make that distinction and not tar every website offering similar services with the same brush.

[wmspringer]

Originally Posted by Ganceann

This should have been the case since the inception of adsense.

Plagiarism is equal to copyright theft or intellectual property theft and Google should not promote services that offer to undertake such policies.

If by plagiarism you mean copying somebody else's work, yes.
In this case, having somebody else do your work for you...that's cheating, and I'd support expelling any student caught doing it, but I don't see how it's in any way related to copyright.

[ReadyToGo]

Originally Posted by Ganceann

Plagiarism is equal to copyright theft or intellectual property theft and Google should not promote services that offer to undertake such policies.

Not in this case; These are customized essays made for the purpose of plagiarism. There's no "theft" involved. Just dumb college students.

[Ganceann]

Originally Posted by wmspringer

If by plagiarism you mean copying somebody else's work, yes.
In this case, having somebody else do your work for you...that's cheating, and I'd support expelling any student caught doing it, but I don't see how it's in any way related to copyright.

When I was at university, a lot of the cases of plagiarism were in fact copyright theft - it was the early days of the net and many lecturers did not see the internet as being a useful resource at the time...

Nowadays, copyright theft, IP theft or cases of infringement get dealt with whether they break the 'fair use policy'.

In essay writing the same boundaries could be applied to plagiarism and copyright theft - depending on the percentage of work that was original to the percentage of work that was blatantly copied from a source.

Readytogo pointed out that the students would only be guilty of plagiarism as the essays are prepared as 'guidelines' and not meant to be direct submissions. However, the copyright/IP infringement would then be down to whoever prepared the essay and whether or not they had made use of 'fair us policy' or whether they had simply taken too much content from their source etc.

[ReadyToGo]

Originally Posted by Ganceann

Readytogo pointed out that the students would only be guilty of plagiarism as the essays are prepared as 'guidelines' and not meant to be direct submissions. However, the copyright/IP infringement would then be down to whoever prepared the essay and whether or not they had made use of 'fair us policy' or whether they had simply taken too much content from their source etc.

I'd assume that the author gives up the copyright given the nature of the service that they provide...

[seo ranter]

should have been done a long time ago.....they are now viewed as a bad neighbourhood by google....down in the pits with the pharmacy and porn sites

[tradeya]

I cant access the page. and i wonder how would google prevent this kind of universal problem XD

[KLB]

About bloody time. I see a lot of finessing of justifications by some to legitimize these services, but the fact of the matter is they are helping students cheat, and get a diploma they haven't really worked for. I also don't buy the "proofreading/correcting service" line part of the purpose of writing papers is learning how to write better. Some service cleaning your paper up for a student doesn't help the student learn to write better, especially if the service doesn't highlight the mistakes.

[totalmasala]

nice info thanks for sharing..........essay writing service banned!

[Teunel]

Aw, those sites are very handy! :O

[Ganceann]

Originally Posted by KLB

About bloody time. I see a lot of finessing of justifications by some to legitimize these services, but the fact of the matter is they are helping students cheat, and get a diploma they haven't really worked for. I also don't buy the "proofreading/correcting service" line part of the purpose of writing papers is learning how to write better. Some service cleaning your paper up for a student doesn't help the student learn to write better, especially if the service doesn't highlight the mistakes.

Bear in mind many users of the services mentioned will normally have english as a 2nd, 3rd or 4th language. Consequently, proofreading/correction services can provide a lot of benefits without helping students cheat - as it is simply structuring their work more coherently and improving the grammar.

But paying to have an essay written is obviously cheating and is rightly not accepted by google.

The reason I mentioned about proofreading services is the fact I know a guy who has started a business offering proofreading to foreign students... and it is endorsed by the university as a valuable service. That is what makes it distinctively different to essay writing services.

[grimsqueaker]

Good on them! People work hard for their diploma, and hopefully this move by google will make it harder for cheaters to find sites to cheat from. Essay mills are not happy places.

[Forrest]

Originally Posted by ReadyToGo

I'd assume that the author gives up the copyright given the nature of the service that they provide...

You could assume the moon is a hoax if you wanted. In any case, entrepreneurial content makers lease and sell usage rights, which are very different from copyright. You can't download a free article and then sue anyone else who's carrying it, for example.

[Azam.biz]

This is a positive step by Google.

Removing MFA Adsense sites from Adsense is another positive step.

Now all we need is Google Adwords to get rid of all those Ebay ads!