In Britain we had a government that wholesale plagiarised works to
create the so-called "Dodgy Dossier" - the basis of the case for going
to war in Iraq in 2003 [1]
In academia it's rife. I was alerted by students to a course at a
prominent Russell Group London university where the entire course
notes were copied verbatim from my website. The only edit was to
deliberately remove my name from every page and slide.
The only thing more disgraceful than plagiarism is the arms-race and
racket around "preventing" it with tools like the dubious "Turnitin" -
dubious in its effectiveness, treatment of students work, privacy
implications and the fact that students are compelled to use it, in
most cases without prior formal agreement [2].
In academia it's rife. I was alerted by students to a course at a prominent Russell Group London university where the entire course notes were copied verbatim from my website. The only edit was to deliberately remove my name from every page and slide.
The only thing more disgraceful than plagiarism is the arms-race and racket around "preventing" it with tools like the dubious "Turnitin" - dubious in its effectiveness, treatment of students work, privacy implications and the fact that students are compelled to use it, in most cases without prior formal agreement [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Dossier
[2] https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/anti-turnitin-scho...