Kyle Brady wins a copyfight
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- “I’m a student at San Jose State University, as a Computer Science major, in San Jose, CA,” blogs Kyle Brady (right).
There, in the last semester, he took Dr Beeson’s ‘Data Structures and Algorithms’.
The homework was all code and had to be submitted by a certain date to an online submission/analysis system, he says, going on »»»
Throughout the semester, I posted my correct/working code publicly (project descriptions returning sometime in the near future), after the due date, and didn’t think much of it – I thought exposing the code to the public could be helpful for some people, as well as a good employer reference for the future.
However, I was contacted by Dr. Beeson after the semester had ended (May 22, 2009), telling me to remove all public code or else he’d fail me, since he considered it a violation of the Academic Integrity standards.
Kyle says he, “responded very politely, citing SJSU Policies and Student Senate Resolutions/Statements,” quoting the missive, to wit »»»
Professor,
How is this a violation of Academic Integrity? I posted them after the initial due date, and very clearly state that these are not to be used in lieu of a student doing their own homework, nor are they likely reliable enough to be used in a corporate environment.
You may ask, then, what the point is – the point is that I’m starting to create a repository where my future employers can see code I’ve written easily, something that is more important for the interview process in our modern world than ever. The work all semester was difficult enough that I felt it warranted being included. Additionally, sharing code with the world at large, in the spirit of the Open Source community, is not incorrect when the code is your own – even if no-one ever looks at it.
According to the Academic Integrity Policy of SJSU [accessible here], I do not qualify for any of the terms of Cheating or Plagiarism.
According to the Student Conduct Code of SJSU [accessible here], I do not qualify for any of the terms of Section B. Any arguments for Section B Item 14 are invalid, because they are not being disseminated for commercial purposes.
According to a statement by the SJSU Student Senate on April 20, 1990 [accessible here], “Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge, the pursuit of truth, the intellectual growth of students, and the general wellbeing of society”. My actions are within the spirit of this.
Finally, according to the same Senate Resolution, students have a right to freedom of speech (which this is classified as), “So long as a student demonstration does not interfere with the classroom”. Having posted the code after the due date, I did not interfere with the classroom.
Thusbly, I do not see a need to remove my code under threat of grade penalty. If you disagree on any of these points, or wish to discuss it further, I will be more than happy to bring this discussion to Dr. Louden’s attention.
Beeson, “responded rather explosively, and was visibly upset/angry,” says Kyle and, in lieu of posting his response, “which I’m sure he’d find and take action on,” he summarizes it »»»
- what were cited are examples, not a full list
- he had expected me to cooperate, otherwise he would have filed a Cheating claim against me
- take down his PDF files due to copyright (note: I did; they’re being retooled for reposting as my own content)
- does everything need to be stated as acceptable or not? spitting on the classroom floor was mentioned.
- future classes will expressly prohibit the public posting of code solutions at any time
“Obviously, the last bit worried me,” says Kyle, and in another letter, “what I have done is no different than sharing answers after they have been turned in for grading – or reviewing graded homeworks in groups before a Final Exam,” he says. ” I merely used the Internet as my distribution method, instead of a paper-and-ink solution.”
He says Besson didn’t respond and he emailed Dr Louden, the computer science department chair, “because of the potentially devastating nature of what Dr. Beeson intended to do,” and on June 1, received a “prompt response,” the “important snippets being” »»»
- the Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development was contacted for a ruling
- Dr. Louden did not believe Dr. Beeson can unilaterally prohibit the public posting of code
- copyright issues could arise if the problem sets were highly unique or code from Dr. Beeson was used (note: not the case)
- Dr. Louden disagreed with the assertion that posting code online was the same as sharing homework solutions, because of the medium in which they were posted (note: the Internet)
- Dr. Louden stated he thought the claim of Freedom of Speech would be a stretch
Adds Kyle:
“I have now heard from Debra Griffith, Judicial Affairs Officer of SJSU, and she agrees that what you have done does not in any way constitute a violation of the University Academic Integrity Policy, and that Dr. Beeson cannot claim otherwise.”
“Thanks to some perseverance and asking the right questions, SJSU Professors are now prohibited from barring students from posting their code solutions online, as well as penalizing their students for doing so.
“A win for students, programmers, and copyfighters nationwide!”
June, 2009
blogs Kyle Brady – How I Won a Copyfight, June 10, 2009
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I had an instructor who wouldn’t even let you keep your tests, he would pass them out so you could see the results, then take them back again. The reason was he was too lazy to switch up the questions from year to year. This sucked, as no one was able to use the returned tests as a study aid. My suspicion is this Professor probably does the same thing. He doesn’t like answers posted because unlike students discussing the test results and then going their own way, the posted results stay online so the next batch of students can get the code online if they know where to look. Maybe if he had explained that instead of getting high handed something could have been worked out.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
If a student decided to use the code he posted in the next class, who is at fault?
A) The student who posted the code
B) The student who used the code for their answer, or
C) The professor, who continued to use the same questions repeatedly.
a) No. The student was not at fault — he wasn’t posting for students to cheat, and any reasonable teacher would have changed the questions the next time around so that the code wouldn’t help much. In any event, similar code could doubtless be found elsewhere strewn about coincidentally similar. A lot of introductory classes use nearly-identical sorts of exercises, so that online tutorials often have the same examples. Why would this be any different for the next class?
b) Yes. The student used someone else’s code as their answer instead of writing their own. Using the first student’s code as a guide is no problem. But plagiarism has always been forbidden — and open source code can still be plagiarized.
c) Yes. If the professor is too lazy to come up with exercises that don’t repeat every semester, then he’s absolutely at fault for the code already being available for the questions. Being a professor is something you earn for academic success. If you’re too lazy to teach the students (and instead expect them to learn on their own and then regurgitate the same stupid crap semester after semester) then you should probably find an easier career.
The student isn’t at fault if any cheating took place. No way. This is just insane; a fine example of oldy moldy teachers who can’t bring themselves up to date and instead expect everyone else to stay in the 20th century.
June 17th, 2009 at 5:16 am
“Thanks to some perseverance and asking the right questions, SJSU Professors are now prohibited from barring students from posting their code solutions online, as well as penalizing their students for doing so.
“A win for students, programmers, and copyfighters nationwide!”
+1 pWn4g3z! xD yay!
Awesome! What license is the code under? GPL? BSD? Got to check… (or haven’t you picked one yet?)
It is truly awesome that they have locked down the possibility to prevent people from sharing code!