Jeremy, I would have to argue that he's got quite the life. This is hilarious. Get a sense of humor. I wonder if all of those posting that he was to harsh, might have had some similar dealings in writing papers in college. To me, who worked his friggin ass off in school, I personally find people that copy and paste research to be on the bottom rung of collegiate society.

So to sum this up, for all of you who feel morally superior,

http://www.cafepress.com/shop/humor/browse/Ne-25_N-1509_bt-2_pv-jimeagle.13391423

I notice that they seem to be getting crazier and crazier. Seriously though Nate, you're like, a total jerk 'nat. I hope you get caught, the next time YOU plagiarize something!

RE: Miguel
(or: Adding Fuel to the Inferno for Fun and Profit)

That is incorrect, sir.

http://www.georgetown.edu/honor/plagiarism.html

Looking at the IM conversations, I'd almost believe she was a student of India Middle School (formerly India Junior High) rather than India University. But then...she has far too good a command of the English language to be at India.

And so I don't get trashed for this, I'm a resident of San Diego, and was born here. I'm very familiar with India Middle School (Junior High).

India University is a Catholic School. Now it all makes sense.

All you motherfucks defending "Laura K. Krishnal" are gonna pay. YOU ARE THE ONES WHO ARE THE BALL-LICKERS. We're gonna fuck your mothers while you watch and cry like little whiny bitches. Once we get to Hollywood and find those Miramax fucks that are soliciting plagiarism, we're gonna make 'em eat our shit, then shit out our shit, then eat THEIR shit, which is made up of OUR shit that we made 'em eat. Then all you motherfucks are next. Love,

I feel it is my duty to present another opinion of this sordid story so that other humans do not blindly applaud such cruelty and stupidity.

Can we spell hoax? I hope so. If this is actually happening as presented .....IN MY OPINION, you have deliberately and with malice aforethought, made a conscious decision to harm another human.

You have been intentionally cruel to another human.

You exposed another person’s true identity on the Internet, as if she were a child molester!

You have affected her entire life from this day forward.

You publicized this human’s offense to the criticism of the universe as she knows it.

Then you publicized your cruel actions.

You can only be seeking fame and kudos'.

(Then he receives them, you thoughtless, hard hearted, illogical gloating unfeeling, viperous voyeurs!)

Yes, she committed a punishable offense by the standards of our education programs; Since when is this a crucifying offense?

You have exposed her to more shame than most popular murder trials create for a guilty criminal over ONE CLASS ASSIGNMENT. Why? Because you thought it would make you look good to your peers. It was FUN!

To find out her identity and her school is acceptable. To report her to the administration, a more appropriate handling of the offense, would be acceptable. They could have flunk or expelled her as the administrators and the school involved saw fit.

With your logs as proof she would have been punished, case closed. Then you could truly claim the value of your diploma would be maintained AND that you had done a noble, if somewhat petty, deed.

To destroy her is unacceptable! How could you claim the power to destroy another person's life? Who died and left you God?

To expose her real name, school and location has bared her to dastardly treatment by other evil humans everywhere. They will continue your cruelty to her.

That there are people who will let you think that what you have done is not only acceptable but appropriate to the offense and to be commended completely appalls me. We are obviously raising moral quadriplegics. You have no heart, no compassion, no empathy and no comprehension of another human’s suffering.

Do you even have a brain? Do the math for this equation: “Is this going to be fun later?”

This girl is going to know who you are. I will make sure of that!

The only possible correct behavior here is that You go RIGHT NOW, pull her real alleged name OFF your site, CALL her, APOLOGIZE and beg forgiveness. Then YOU WRITE that apology in your blog and under it write one THOUSAND TIMES, I do not grok, I am not God!

May I have your mother's snail mail address? I want to send her a paper bag to wear over her head and my personal condolences.

Val, go suck a dick.

Nate: who does your hosting, cause dang, this thing is getting traffic.

You should have asked her for a copy of her syllabus, so you could tailor the paper to the class better.

That would have the prof's name on it.

Ryan, We've been working with the host to make sure things keep chugging along. Hopefully we won't exceed our transfer limits. Who knows, the blog will probably get Slashdotted next, in which case, we'll be pretty much screwed.

Disconnect theyfuckyouatthedrivethru Dot Com, Don't you type to me in that tone of voice!

You go right to your room! And NO TV tonight!!

One more word and it's the soap for you!

Don't you eyeball me like that, boy!

Val, can I have your real name and address please. Playing God sounds cool...

welcom to McDonalds may i take ur order pleas??

Hello Todd, You don't need my name to play ADULT! Just grow up!

I mean, really guys! OK, she cheated, or tried to cheat. Report it and let it go. This is way out of line.

I am not afraid to say what I think and I think this was a low, mean act by a kid who doesn't think of the consequences of his actions before he acts them.

I WANT RESULTS DAMNIT!

I've got shit I've gotta do! I can't be refreshing this stupid page every five seconds to see if princess plagiarism has been nailed yet!

Make with the goods!

;)

Ok now wait a sec.

Val: What? Let me be sadistic and say that without witnesses, victory loses its luster. Had he NOT shown the world what one mind can do to steer another on the correct path, someone else would. SO you can cut the whole vulgar humanity talk, because honestly, you haven't begun to think about how to rectify the situation in your own hands. Sometimes, you HAVE to take charge for otehr people's stupidity.

To hell with that, I'da done the same thing. Kudos Nate. Now all she needs is to be sent a smilie face with the worlds "So-where ya working now?" under it!

You WILL be posting resulting emails, correct?

First, let me say that this is frelling brilliant. As an artist and writer I despise plagiarism, so this is a lesson Ms. Krishna is in need of.

Second, to everyone with the OMG UR MEEN NATE
mentality, consider this: Ms. Krishna was willing to fork over any amount of cash for a paper she was supposed to have done herself. She had the poor judgement (on top of that) to latch on to the first mention of Hindu she came across and not pay attention to whether or not it was serious.

Also, if Nate had just delivered a stern lecture (complete with shaking of the finger and a light tap on her wrist with a ruler) and sent her packing, what do you suppose would have happened then? Well, Ms. Krishna and her checkbook would have huffed and sought out another potential paper-writer, most likely. Her attitude makes me suspect she wouldn't have wept and seen the error of her ways.

This is a lesson creatively delivered and I hope hard-learned.

Remember folks, according to VAL, the only people who have their real names put on the Internet are CHILD MOLESTERS.

Besides, maybe she is a child molester, in which case Nate just killed two birds with one stone.

But what if she only molests the children of terrorists? Then is she a hero? Seems like you do have an interesting quandry on your hands...

I do a lot of hiring.

Whenever I get a resume that looks promising, I immediately Google the applicant's name, to find out the interesting stuff they left out of the cover letter.

Poor, poor Laura. Thanks to this post and all of the inbound links, this will be her Google identity for a long, long time.

Either:

a) this is the perfect ending to the story for someone too lazy to write her own paper.

or

b) the real Laura K. Krishna has just been terribly wronged and will forever be telling the "some blogger destroyed my name" story. And lighting cigarettes with fifty-dollar bills from her huge legal settlement.

"To destroy her is unacceptable! How could you claim the power to destroy another person's life? Who died and left you God?"

I think she did

Nate Kushner is a Sadistic Defamer!
http://nate-kushner.blogspot.com

You had me at "money isn't really an object to me." If you'd have turned her down, I'm sure she would have kept right on going until she found someone else to do it for her. With all the time she invested on you, she could have written the damn thing herself.

BTW, found you through bOING bOING, and I'll be back for the thrilling conclusion. :)

just for the record:
I found you through a friend on livejournal.com

Thank you for enacting the justice of moral law. You were completely in the right.

Val, grow up. She's not being "crucified"; she's being embarrassed, as she damn well should be. Students don't give a rat's ass about getting caught plagiarizing, because usually the only result is that they have to write the goddamn paper again. So it's worth a try. With luck, this girl goes to a college that actually takes plagiarism seriously, and she'll fail the goddamn class. Regardless, though, cheaters should be publicly shamed, because it's peer pressure--not rewriting the paper, not even failing the course--that will really hold them accountable. Students shouldn't cheat because it fucks over everyone else who actually does the work; and if a student is cheating, then the people who *are* actually doing the work deserve to know about it.

Ho there Nate! I always knew you were an evil bastard. Good to see you're still up to your old chaotic tricks. Keep on fighting the good fight, my man.

Nate,

It was quite a fortunately comedic happening that I met you through Eric and that I got to surprise you sporadically afterwards with the fact that I remembered your name. This tops even your take on Jesus during his "missing" years. I think that paper is worth every penny of its $75 dollar price tag. If you'd like a picture of Laura K. Krishna, I assure you that I'm web savvy enough to track one down for you. Nerds everywhere can now rejoice in knowing that a lazy slacker got her dues from one "hot" paper.

Is it possible that YOU, Nate, were hoaxed as well?

If she was smart enough to lie about her college, could she have been smart enough to lie about her name, steal/fake/printout a check, etc?

Maybe Laura K. Krishna is actually this person's arch-nemesis, and our plaigarist is succeeding (with you as her enthusiastic stooge) to destroy the innocent and honestly studious Laura's reputation?

Then again, maybe not...

So you bill yourself as a comedy writer. Don't you have to be FUNNY to be a comedy writer?

Instead of taking the moral high ground and showing yourself to be a decent human being, you've proven yourself to be an even bigger sack of shit than Laura. And those praising you for this are just as bad, and apparently have no moral compass beyond the basic neanderthal mob mentality.

What goes around, comes around. Law of three.

Oh, and Bitchphd, I don't know what university you went too (if any), but the one I went too had VERY harsh rules regarding this. If you submitted work that wasn't your own, you got booted. End of story.

Gotta disagree with the masses on cashing the check.
Legally, I would not, so that nothing can come back on you.
Morally, you have earned that money in supplying the service she requested and (hopefully) teaching this young woman a lesson about the dangers of the internet. She is willing to pay a university money to teach her what she needs to knows and pays a lot more than $75.
I really don't get these people that seem to think that once you take money for something you lose your moral high-ground. Priests make money from what they do, so does Rush Limbaugh and Noam Chomsky, everyone on the air at Fox news and NPR get paid.
You could give the $ to some charity that then uses it to raise the salary of an already over-paid Director (I know from experience how too many "Non-Profits" work).
Money is a tool, not good, not evil, only the love of it over anything else is truly evil.

"what goes around comes around" is just something we tell ourselves to not feel so bad about all the shitty shit that happens to us.

georgi, I do believe (though I've not seen it) that Nate has a photo of a check. Now, yes she could've printed off something from her PC that resembles a check with Miss Laura's name on it, but I wouldn't put that past somebody who can't regularly spell "your".

Hi, I read the first few lines of your blog posting! You are really good at writing! Would you mind writing one of my papers? I'll send you $200. Please email me!

Oh, if she was dumb enough not to proofread the paper, she deserves everything she gets for this. Never trust a random stranger to produce top quality...dean's list work.....

This dumb girl and her actions are not comparable to other crimes and horrible people. She cheated, so? Why don't we just drag all over town and pelt her with stones? There are crimes far worse than anything she did. I bet every one of you self-righteous fools have committed worse.

If the education system sucks in this country, Laura and her dumb friends are not the cause. Higher education is a business like anything else and Laura played the game. If you want to straighten out the education system in the country, make it more difficult, more demanding and ask for the best. But do not tell the mass populace that it is absolutely necessary and then fault them for not living up to expectations.

Now when I read this, I found it funny but I also wished it were untrue. But the comments that followed were even crueler, they felt at ease to air their superiority, they had not cheated in college (congratulations!) because she was a dumb, cheating RICH girl (that probably parties a lot and teased frustrated boys and girls in college).

My point being is this strong reaction does not really have anything to do with the girl or the crime but all that built up frustration from their college years. Doubly frustrated that she made the bloody Dean's list.

I hope a movie is made on Laura (played by Reese Witherspoon) who gets squashed but learns and moves on. While the blogger (played by Gary Oldman) who destroyed her life spends his life spends his time in his parents bedroom trying to prank young girls.

Oh, and Bob Bernstein, bite me

Wow.. this is only going to get bigger.
Regardless if you picked the right Laura, Google will turn up your paper for sure. Any self-respecting prof these days googles at least 1 or 2 sentences of a paper to look for plagarism. Perhaps they'll even use an online webservice like turnitin.com.
If you've got the wrong Laura, you have nothing to fear. It's not slander if she didn't do it. She'd have to share the middle initial like you've stipulated, and it's the classic scenario. She should have nothing to fear if she has nothing to hide.

How is Laura "playing the game"? Education is now based on how much money you have and if you can get other people to do your work for you? If you can't take the pressure, then she should quit school and find something more her pace, like fast food.

aap, what's the deal in not posting your name? Have a guilty conscious? Everybody's looked at somebody else's test, written answers somewhere or even copied a friend's homework after a rough night....soliciting a paper from a stranger through AOL is entirely different.

In response to Bobbie Bernstein, I'd like to say that I've never even been to Spain.

I had a student email me once, basically asking me to write a paper on Agnieszka Holland. I had a little fun at her expense in my blog (click my name), but I think now that I should have seen how far she was willing to go.

Why is everyone here so down on child molesting? You've got to pay for school somehow!

I have to agree with Val - you went too far with the Laura Krishna thing. The whole escapade looks like it is set up for you to have fun at someone else's expense. It would have made more sense if you were fighting someone who was trying to do you personal harm.

The deal about education is that it is ongoing, whether you are in college or not. What lessons do you think you will come away from this with?

- Dave

Firstly, someone suggested that plagiarism is neither a legal nor an ethical crime.

Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else's work as your own. In many cases, this is theft of that other person's work. Theft is both a legal and an ethical crime (well, depending on your ethics, I suppose...).

In this case, there was no theft involved, as the student in question paid for (or apparently intends to pay for) the other person's work. She is, however, committing fraud, by pretending that someone else's work is hers. That is also both a legal and an ethical crime (again, depending on your ethics, I suppose...).

Secondly, several people seem to be proposing that this person should not be punished for committing fraud. Why? Why should a person who commits or attempts to commit a crime not be punished for her behaviour?

People have suggested that Nate's post will ruin this person's life. How will it ruin her life any more than a criminal record with the police would? She has commmitted (or attempted to commit) a crime. Why should she be treated any differently from any other criminal or would-be criminal?

If someone is IM'ing random people for help with a paper, it's probably safe to assume that they've done this sort of thing before and have exhausted their usual venues.

Nate, you Harry Potter look alike,
Way to go ruining someone's life. That was so morally responsible of you. Besides the fact that you are a complete dick, the whole story you posted was a sad, tedious attempt at humor. Do you really think it was funny? Im not saying this because I think you did a completely self-righteous, bitchy thing. Judging it purely as comedy, it sucked. You are an idiot. Good luck with the ladies, you humorless moron.

I have no sympathy for this student. College is not about paying for a piece of paper, it's paying for the access to experts in a field, amazing libraries, and the opportunity to learn. I put in an incredible amount of work to teach my classes, and I find that very few of the students feel they should have to put any effort in in return. Poor test grades don't seem to impart the lesson that even if class attendance isn't mandatory it's a damn good idea, and I don't think strongly urging Laura to rethink plagarism would have had much effect either. Sadly, I'm not sure this will have much effect. Not everyone is meant for college, at least right out of high school- so it's sad that everyone feels like they have to go to college right away these days.

I think the President should do the godly thing and push through legislation to save Laura K. Krishna's academic career.

"I think the President should do the godly thing and push through legislation to save Laura K. Krishna's academic career.
"

Oh for the love of all that is Holy...
If I hear one more stinking thing about Terri Shiavo I'm going to hang myself.

Hey henwhen: Terri Shiavo

Natertots,

An hour and a half later, I'm caught up on the whole situation and all the comments. And I'm still laughing.

I can tell you this much: As a fledgling first-year law student who did exactly 3 minutes of research before posting this comment, I am 28% sure you cannot be held liable for ANYthing.

What you did with Laura was essentially enter into a social contract by exchanging promises: A promised paper for a promised check. However, and this is where it's gray, you cannot contract to do something that is illegal. Plagiarism is generally regarded as an ethical issue, not a legal one, but there is room to argue both ways. If it was argued as a legal issue, the contract would be void, never existing to begin with. Fraud and misrepresentation would be thrown out the window. And besides, what court would look at what happened and decide that L. Krishna is in the right?

Bottomline: No sweat. I promise to do many more minutes of research and you'll feel better and happy. Keep doing what you're doing.

-Wes

Many of you say that Laura's bad behaviour doesn't warrant dragging her name through the mud, ruining her global reputation and the like. But aren't you maybe overestimating the impact of this blog? I'm enjoying the hell out of this too, but I doubt anyone else I talk to today will have seen it and I'd bet most of the people with whom Laura comes into contact in the future never hear about this.

This girl's life hasn't been ruined. As someone else stated, she'll be embarrassed for a long time, and she honestly deserves it. If she is conditioned to a life where she can pay to get what she wants and not have to work for her betterment, then it's probably high time she had a paradigm shift. Crimes are meant to be punished.

I was a mite annoyed at whoever stated that everyone's response was due to their own frustration at their own years in college. Having not finished mine yet, and being one who IS on the Dean's List and worked hard to get there -- no, I'm not frustrated. Because I'm here, legally. Would I turn in someone who plagiarized? Yes. Because people have stolen my work before, and I certainly do not appreciate it.

wow, how web-famous do you have to be before you get lectured by kimmy gibbler? i'm so impressed.

also? i think "law of three" was something they made up in The Craft.

i don't think this was sadistic, or unfunny, or comparable to crucifiction. i think it's internet justice, baby. laura's parents seem a mite controlling laura to actually be in college so i agree with the tin-foil-hat theory of her being in India middle school; she probably just wanted a college-level-good paper. yet perhaps they are net savvy enough to come across this and gape in horror at their spawn.

Blogging is journalism!

"laura's parents seem a mite controlling laura to actually be in college so i agree with the tin-foil-hat theory of her being in India middle school; she probably just wanted a college-level-good paper. yet perhaps they are net savvy enough to come across this and gape in horror at their spawn."

I don't know, Ester, I think the religious intricacies of Hinduism might be a bit too sophisticated a topic for a middle school in California.

THere is no legal liability on Nate's part. He entered into a contract and performed as per the terms. Now, one might argue that he did a shoddy enough job that he violated the terms, but so what? The remedy would have to be foregoing payment or specific performance. And neither one is going to happen.
Finally, libel standard is too high. There is no deliberate or malicious misrepresentation. Especially given the check photo.

DAMN YOU TO HELL! (lastrobot)

my eyes....they bleeeeeed

Just because she's a plagarist doesn't mean you're not a dick, Nate.

henwhen - the bleeding eyes are from tightness of the rope

One more thing:

You know what this discussion is really about? "Let's us get Laura" gang pretend it is an ethical issue. In actuality, what they are fighting for is the RIGHT TO LAUGH? at anything, at anyone's expense, no matter how cruel. They have justified this by creating a whole bunch of ethical issues this girl has crossed by trying to cheat.

No one is going to bother actually doing anything constructive on the Higher education system in this country, nah that takes too much thinking. Or even anything about plagiarizing, why don't you incredibly moral people start a petition or something on the horror of plagiarizing. No, you really don't care about that, you care that you are left alone to laugh. You would even fall asleep faster if you could convince a couple of other people to believe this girl deserves it.

it's cutting off the oxygen to my brain...
How gleefully ironic!
Should I happen to end up in a persistent vegitative state...just pull the damn plug m-kay?

Hmm.. I'm confused. Kimmy Gibbler says that Nate is being morally responsible.. which is usually interpreted as a good thing. Maybe she meant morally reprehensible. Perhaps she should have spent more time reading and less time brushing her hair. Oh well.

Nate, in my opinion you're being reprehensibly responsible by outing this scum sucking essay fraudster.

"No one is going to bother actually doing anything constructive on the Higher education system in this country, nah that takes too much thinking. Or even anything about plagiarizing, why don't you incredibly moral people start a petition or something on the horror of plagiarizing."

Actually did that as an Honors Project. So yes. I've bought my right to snigger. Go away please.

aap - welcome to the internets, where everyone laughs cruelly at everyone else's expense

its a cruel world and the internets makes it anonymously cruel

Kudos to you Nate. As one of the millions who worked hard in school and felt cheating was unthinkable, I thank you. Cheaters don't just cheat themselves, as the cliche says, they cheat everyone by devaluing higher education.

Yup, laughing at someone who was dumb enough to solicit a complete stranger for a 5 page paper over AIM instead of just doing the normal thing and making a up a lame excuse for an extension is exactly what this is about.

Perhaps the next idiot who thinks about it might have this as a reason to think otherwise, but probably not - so might as well laugh at what you've got.

Fantastic. All of it.

Nate: FYI.. Martindale Hubbell doesn't publish the name of everyone who passes the bar. Attorneys have to request to be listed.

I'm amazed at how much attention this has received.

So... if she doesn't turn in the paper, she isn't actually committing the act of plagiarism. The worst she has done is have somebody write her a paper. She may have had the intent to plagiarize, but I don't think that's sufficient to get you kicked out of school if you don't actually go through with it.

On the theme of covering your own ass: don't you think you should have waited to see what she actually did with the paper? Others have pointed this out as well - you might be on the hook for libel. Not a fun hook to be on, I would imagine.

Ironically, until she actually turns in the paper as her own, the only true plagiarism is - yours. You sent her a paper with uncited pieces lifted entirely from Google (just endnotes isn't enough) and represented it as your work, for which you got paid.

aap: It is an ethical issue! Who's talking about fixing the higher education system? We're talking about fixing one cheater.

Right to laugh? HAHAHA HAHA HA! Nope. No one tried to stop me from laughing. My right is intact. Schadenfreude lives.

She cheated. She got caught. Wah! Cry me a river! Go bleed your heart out somewhere else...

(And I don't think you're a dick Nate. Someone is plagiarizing my name... :)

I caught a plagiarist once, entirely by accident.

I was doing research for a paper in grad school and found an article that sounded remarkably like another article I had read earlier. When I compared them side by side, I saw that the author of the more recent article had lifted entire paragraphs of text from the earlier article, including data in the results section. They were copied verbatim -- there were no citations and no credit given, aside from a brief mention in the conclusion section that an earlier study by so-and-so had yielded similar results.

People, this was an article published in an actual ACADEMIC JOURNAL, and not by a student, but by a PROFESSOR.

I contacted the journal and sent them a copy of both articles, with the plagiarized text highlighted. I ended up with a free subscription to the journal and was told that they contacted the university this guy taught for. I never heard what repercussions he faced, but I hope they were severe.

If this Laura K. Krishna really exists and the story turns out to be true, then one more person has been stopped from advancing unethically and to that I say HOORAY! Much better for her to learn the lesson now rather than later when she's got a lot more to lose -- like, say, a university professor trying to publish plagiarized articles.

magdaleina-

Honors project - how wonderfully cute!! The world thanks you for your geekiness.

Hail to revenge of the geeks!!

"the only true plagiarism is - yours. You sent her a paper with uncited pieces lifted entirely from Google (just endnotes isn't enough) and represented it as your work, for which you got paid."

OMG - did you come up with that theory on your own? Just endnotes aren't enough? For what body that will be judging that factoid? Now someone can't post random pieces of text from google on their own website without proper citation?

I love how people are saying things like "entered a contract". This thread is hilarious. Random chick pays random dude money to cheat - random dude tells the internet ... and suddenly people are bringing in contract law. Law and Order is clearly running on too many channels.

Wow, I've been called a geek. I'm hurt. Considering that's only an insult contextually by people who are too stupid to amount to any decently paying job, I'm not that impressed. You don't even have your GED, do you, aap?

i couldn't be bothered to read all the comments, so i'm not sure if someone said this already -- but i don't think that writing a, well, unscholarly paper is harsh at all, because she wasn't forced to turn it in. she still could've downloaded it and decided she'd be better off writing her own.

This has got to be the most amazing response to anything I have ever seen. Nate, you have done something that all artists/comedians/human beings dream of. Something you did, you said, you wrote, made literally thousands of people respond in some way, whether it was laughing, getting angry, getting nervous, or flunking a class. Congrats man.

And for my own addition, my favorite part about all the replies is the game of one upmanship that is going on. It starts off with "I am holier than though," which garners the reply "I am holier than though who says he is holier than though," and on and on. I think it's now up to 17 holiers.

regarding some comment somewhere about middle schoolers and papers and some shit...

I actually had to do a lengthy report on Islam and a two thousand + word term paper on Edgar Allen Poe in eighth grade.
Some of the stuff I did in middle school made some of the work I did in high school look...pretty pathetic.

I have a feeling those critisising this blog have never taught at a university. Yes, it's morally questionable to publish someone's info-- and I'm not sure I agree with your decision.

But plagiarism is the cancer of academic life. It's incredibly wide-spread and students know that they have to be unlucky or stupid to get caught.

I had a student, who copied parts of another student's essay word for word, and still lied to my face and insisted she had never plagiarised. After I gave her and everyone else in the class a talking to, she plagiarised again, this time from a book. I caught her by googling phrases from her essay, and found a course description for another university with identical text. It turned out that the course description was plagiarised too! I emailed them and the description was pulled down in minutes.

This girl and all other plagiarisers not only cheapen the hard work other students do but also the hard work teachers do. I had invested time in this girl, I knew her and chatted to her-- and she cheated on me (that's at least what it felt like). Ironically, her cheating meant I had to invest even more time in talking to University authorities, writing reports on her etc.

All this time, I could have spent helping some more deserving student. And her place could have been taken up by someone else. Thousands get turned down from the University every year. Moreover, while you can always replace material goods when they are stolen, you can't replace ideas.

In the end: perhaps naming and shaming this girl publicly is too harsh a punishment. But plagiarism is everywhere and it's so difficult to prove. When a clear-cut case like this comes up, you just can't let her get by without any consequences.

Despite any form of legal repercussions, this is morally irresponsible. The potential that you have indicted an innocent "Laura K. Krishna at India U." outweighs any possible humor or positive outcome.

Thank God the legal system doesn't work like this.

Among the thousands if not millions of people who have read this post and subsequent comments, how many will now be willing to hire an innocent, yet publicly marked, "Laura K. Krishna from India U."? This is just one possible outcome.

While this doesn't officially fall under the legal definition of libel, it should make you consider the spirit of the law.

Matty U, it would seem to me that if the Laura K. Krishna that is from Indian Community College is an innocent bystander in all this, Nate will more than likely edit the blog and state that the perpetrator used a false alias and apologise, no?

Nate: This is just a way to drive traffic to your blog, right? I'm a huge blogwhore, too, maybe I'll try something similar.

Magdaleina,

You seem to assume that geekiness equals intelligence. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. And by the ways, I am currently teaching at a NY "higher" eduction system. If I did have a student who cheated, I would gladly punish the student. But to play a cruel prank and then to morally justify that is clearly childish.

Schopenhauer put it the best way "compassion is the root of all morality".

What the hell is wrong with you people? I'm as a big of a responsibility-shirking lazy-ass far-left-wing nutjob as any, but even I understand that this girl (if real) deserves all the shit she's got coming to her and has no one to blame but herself. Spoiled retards should not be rewarded for their spoiled retardedness. It's idiots like those shitting on Nate in these comments that allow people like Paris Hilton to proliferate.

"compassion is the root of all morality".

ah yes, my dear aap VERY observant...but what you fail to realize is this:
Compassion isn't funny!

run along now...your heart is bleeding all over my shoes.

aap,

I think you're lying out of your teeth. You challenged the lot of us to do something about the problems we speak out against and I provided an example, and your response was to turn around and call me a cute little geek, like that would deter me in the slightest? No Professor would do that and think it would have any bearing.

Awesome... simply awesome! I can't believe you're getting such bad feedback on this. I mean, hell, if you wrote this chick's name on a bathroom wall.. touting the lovely things she told you in an AIM set.. you wouldn't be being attacked as such.

The internet is the bathroom wall of the world... and, you've just gotten the largest audience ever!

She probably won't get kicked out. Even if she does, she can go to a community college for a couple of years and then transfer into a more prestigious school on the condition of being on academic probation for the first couple of semesters.

And this certainly doesn't bar her from getting jobs and the like due to a bad reputation--this site ain't CNN, people. Most people will never hear her name.

Magdaleina: If he had simply left it at, "Laura Krishna told me she went to Eastern Illinois; she was lying.", that is one thing. But he went to the trouble of looking up a girl with the same name, published where this 'new' girl went to school, and accused her. This, in my opinion, is where he crossed the line.

Thanks for clarifying your reasoning, Matty U. (If I recall correctly, someone else looked her up at the other school, but that's incidental.)

I've noticed that a lot (not all) of the people critical of your actions have poor spelling and grammer skills, at least in the comments here. Not that mine are much better -- but I suspect some of them might have cribbed a few papers in college back in the day.

That said, I have a college professor friend who caught a few kids plagerizing in his class, and he was very torn about what to do. Ultimately, he deferred to the dean, and they're dealing with the students now. This is a serious matter, but not one that will necessary ruin their lives.

As for it being wrong to expose her "on the internet" and whatnot where everyone can see, I personally think the internet is doing a good job of replacing God (and/or Santa) as the all-seeing overlord that will punish your misdeeds even if nobody else ever finds out.

Anonymity, especially if we do something that we know is wrong, is neither a right nor particularly likely with the communication technology at our disposal. At the same time, there are quite a few Laura Pohls out there, and I sincerely hope you have the correct one (did you try Northeastern Illinois University, since she claimed Eastern Illinois University)?

Short version: I hope you have the right Laura. However, the right Laura shouldn't be given a free pass just because she didn't suspect she'd get caught in this way. Unless, of course, you'd forgive the person who broke into your house because he didn't realize he'd end up on COPS.

To Kimmy Gibbler,

Although we share the same name, we apparently do not share the same taste in men or comedy. As a former lover of Nate's, I find him to be both funny and studly. Now, what is your opinion of Bob Saget?

Sir, I salute you. Rare form and rarer justice should be properly lauded.

For the naysayers, allow me to say I laughed just about as loudly at your rationalizations as I did at the original article.

I personally think this is a publicity ploy however plagarism is a big deal and you shut one girl down and scared off anyone else. But seriously...who would just randomly IM someone for a paper. You could be a cop or a professor for all she knew.

Magdaleina,

I did not speak out against you because you wrote a frigging honors paper. Rather, it was the fact that you thought that was enough. I don't think half these students really care about what they learn in school, they just want to get some awesome job after they finish. That is problem with "higher education". I entered college with that same idea, get a degree and get a job. But being in the right environment, that changed. Is that same environment still prevalent? I do not think so.

-henwhen
I really could not care about your shoes.

"I'm a professor..." "I am currently teaching at a NY "higher" eduction system..." "I've never plagiarized in my life..." "I EARNED my degree..."

Welcome to a blog on the Internet, the most unofficial "information" repository in history. Your credentials don't matter here. On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. You can all be thirteen year old kids - and judging by grammar... ;-)

Point being, what you say will hold water or it won't, regardless.

oh that hurt...

This stuff is crazy! Did she go to Harvard or something?

"As for it being wrong to expose her "on the internet" and whatnot where everyone can see, I personally think the internet is doing a good job of replacing God (and/or Santa) as the all-seeing overlord that will punish your misdeeds even if nobody else ever finds out."

Funny. I sacrificed a possum to Google about five minutes ago right here on my desk at work.

Its still here.

I know what I'm having for dinner! Yum!

aap,

Funny, I didn't say anything about a paper. I said "project". Either that's a misread or you're sorely confused. A Professor would know the difference. I'm talking campus-wide activity. I and three other Honors Students spent a week speaking to English foundation courses about plagiarism and also explaining the importance of the University Honors Code -- all members of the Honors Program sign this book as a pledge to make all their work their own and to do their best to encourage it among their other students. A book was purchased for strictly English majors, new signatures added yearly, made for those who might not be in the Program.

So yes, I think that's a good start in actively encouraging responsible schoolwork.

(As a final note, most people who want to be a Professor sure aren't in it for the degree and the money; it doesn't pay THAT much without a doctorate -- most of the holders being "geeks", I don't think you apply. For you to turn around and call a dedicated student a revenge seeking "geek" also kind of contradicts you; as a Professor, you should at least know the quality and value of good work and why it would make so many people angry. If you don't, then you don't deserve to be a teacher.)

I keep coming back lookin for new developments. I'm really annoyed at the few people who been posting messages like..."Boo Hoo Hoo! Poor Lil' Laura. She'll get kicked out, and blacklisted. Poor Baby. Nate should be ashamed of himself....whine whine whine!!!"

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!

This bitch totally deserves it. Besides....according to her.."money is no object".
Hey, those were HER words, not mine. She knew what the consequences would be BEFORE she solicited Nate. If she got money like that then...hey, I'm happy for her. But for most of us, money IS an object. And we bust our asses to get good grades, in the hopes of securing a good career. Many students have to juggle jobs and classes just to get by. It's hard. And it's irritating as all hell that a lazy-ass bitch with a silver spoon in her mouth, expects someone else to do her work for her. Everyone who feels so sorry for her should get together and make a " Let's Help Laura Fund". That's right go to work, make money, hell,....steal it for all she cares. And then turn around a give her your hard earned cash while she sits on her ass EXPECTING you fools to take care of her. In a way, you already are.

your a fucking asshole nate

By the way, my above trolling aside, I think Nate did the right thing since Laura deserves what she gets (if it really is her) but be careful to not cash any checks you get! Seriously.

Sorry nate but you sound like a total pr1ck for doing what you did. If this is real, congratulations on ruining someone's life.

Dear Team Sympathy:

Here's a thought - don't send random istant messages to someone YOU DON'T KNOW asking them to help you CHEAT and you don't get fucked with. Sounds pretty simple to me!

Y'all--seriously--how is her life "ruined?" Please map out her dark new path for me. Do you really think a blog entry which less than 1% of the US population will ever read is going to close off any appealing options for this girl for the rest of her life?

A lot of people have responded that "oh no, L. Krishna's life is ruined" but frankly, no, it's not. I've known a lot of young women who hold this sort of disdain for actual classwork, and most of them were only in college to get their M.R.S. Degrees. They had no interest in persuing an academic career and only passing interest in a professional career. If Ms. Krishna actually cared about her education, she would not risk it in such an obviously stupid manner.

If she weren't caught, I suspect she would graduate, get a low-end professional job for a few years, marry her boyfriend, and quit her career to pump out a couple of kids. If she does indeed get caught, expelled, and blacklisted, then she'll just start contributing to the degenerating gene pool just that much sooner.

You, my young friend, are setting yourself up for a defamation lawsuit the likes that you will regret for the rest of your life. She is a private person, not a public personae.

Just giving you the facts, son. You are going to regret making this public. If you'd just left her name out of it, this would have been one hiarious romp. But no, you had to let malice in your heart get the better of you.

You better hope George Walker Bush hbbles lawsuits before she finds out.B ecuase when she does, it's curtains for you.

No names were changed in the creation of this message.

St. Joe Friday

If you had any actual grasp on US law, cynic, you'd realize how idiotic your post is.

Anyone defending Laura needs to have a good hard look at themselves.

She deserves to be punished not just for attempting to plagiarise but for being so STUPID as to randomly approach Nate sight unseen.

Anyone comparing her to a paedophile is being melodramatic. She is being called what she is, a plagiarist. Anyone who reads this and later comes into contact with Laura will know she's a plagiarist, and not something worse. They might still let her babysit their kids, they're just not going to trust anything she submits.

Good on you Nate.

I feel that Ms. Krishna got her dues...if you're going to mess around rather than do the work necessary for a class, then you really shouldn't be in college.

Perhaps this is why college degrees aren't enough--any idiot can get one.

And before I get flamed:

1. I am a former college student, majoring in Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
2. Never once have I encountered a plagarist.
3. I have only ever heard of someone being caught for plagarism *once* while I was in school (this case, it was my high school).

Found this through www.livejournal.com/~customers_suck.

Nate's providing a public service here.

I can't tell you how many imbeciles with 4+ years of college I've worked alongside. Morons that were certainly capable of pulling the kind of crap Laura tried pulling here. I've had coworkers that actually had the gall to ask me to write code for them (code they're paid to write) due to their inability (talking source code here - I work in IT).

Not only do I pay for such idiocy with time and frustration, but every customer of the companies/orgs that hire dimwits like this pay for it --- as long as these leeches draw a paycheck, they are a drain on society.

Will Laura learn her lesson from getting her name exposed? Probably not the one she needs to learn. She'll probably just learn not to get anonymous help next time, or, even more likely, not to share her (real) name.

I'll probably end up working with the dumbass, too.

So lighten up, sympathizers - Nate's helping all of us here. Well, all of us but the lazy dumbasses.

I cheated in school once. In middle school shop class, my oatmeal cannister pinhole camera went missing (I still think someone stole it!) so I nabbed someone else's and painted over their name.

Needless to say, I got caught. Publicly. It was utterly humiliating, and it took years for my peers to forget about it. You know what, though? The shame taught me a valuable lesson, which is NOT TO FUCKING CHEAT.

It wasn't "crucifixion", it didn't ruin my life. It did, however, teach me that I didn't like the shame and humiliation that went along with breaking the rules, so, duh, I didn't cheat again.

If this is all for real, the only unfair part about it is that Laura didn't learn her lesson when she was younger and it didn't matter as much.

I don't have any idea why anyone feels pity for this girl. It's her own damned fault for being too bloody lazy to write her own paper! I think she needs a reality check, which she should get quite soon, if these posts are any indication. Too many people think, "Oh, it doesn't matter if I plagiarize... I just need the grades." Well, it does matter if you plagiarize. It's not fair to anyone -- the other students, the teacher, the person whose ideas and/or words you stole, or yourself.

More power to you for giving this girl the kind of shaking she needs.

To all those claiming Nate has absolutely ruined someone’s life/is a horrible, horrible, evil person for doing this:
Even if the girl knows jack shit about Hindu, if she reads through the paper, she should be able to pick up on “Dharma and Greag” and “I made a dooty.” Therefore, if she actually hands this paper in, that means she didn’t even read it over. Not only did she make her own bed by choosing to plagiarize in the first place, but she will have lain down in the coffin and nailed it shut by not reading the paper over.

However, those lines do give her the chance to redeem herself. If she picks up on them, she could chose not to hand the paper in. Even though Nate emailed the Dean, there will certainly not be enough proof against her for them to do anything if the paper isn’t handed in.

She 100% deserves what she will (hopefully) get if she hands the paper in. Plus Nate gave her the opportunity to save herself, making him a much better person than he needed to be.

I salute you, Nate. This was brilliant, and I hope she gets what’s coming.

This is perfect.

I agree that you did the right thing. If you'd said "No, plagiarism is wrong" instead, she'd have blocked you and run off to find someone else who'd do it for her. Of course, I'm assuming that you're not going to spend the $75 (if you get it) on beer and rent.

I'm an undergrad at a prestigious private university, and you would not believe the number of kids who don't bother doing any work at all because they can just pull it offline in half an hour. If it's like this here, what can it be like elsewhere? I'm amazed that this perversion of education is becoming so mainstream.

Anyway, as an undergrad (yes, a college kid!), I'd just like to thank you for this. If I ever did something like this, there's no question I'd want my ass handed to me.

Scylla, I completely agree. The scary thing is that half the pre-med students at my school are like this. Don't go under the knife in America in the next ten to twenty years, people! The man cutting you open might not have legally passed!

I find the outpouring of pity for LKP interesting. I remember a little bit of scolding with the pppppowerbook and the other Nigerian scam setups, but nowhere near this intensity. Similarly, where were all these people concerned about the star wars kid or the dancing cam guy. Again, there were some who were concerned, but not nearly so vocal. Why this more so than the pppowerbook job?

I was the girl in school that got hit up to write papers/programs for people throughout my school career. Mind you, I was silly to fall for it in middle school. After that, If You Don't Want To Do It, Then Neither Do I became the rule for me. Yet, I was shocked that they actually found someone to do their work for them. I guess that would be the caste system put into play.

Chivas! People these days...this has kept me entertained all my workday (yes, thank you, I do my own work at my job! And I don't do the work of others!) and I feel it will entertain me the rest of the week.

I really want to see the outcome of this, I really do...

Sorry, I forgot to mention this before -- in my classes, no professors or TAs have ever checked students' papers for plagiarism by Googling sections.

Think about it -- they'd have to do a sentence or two from each paragraph of each paper from each student. You think that's going to happen in an entry-level lecture of 500? It doesn't even happen in my 15-person discussion groups.

So I hope you've ridden the line well enough that the professor will go "Hey, that's not right." The parts about Dharma & Greg are funny for us to read, but if she even glances at the paper, she won't be turning it in. You should've stuck to facts that sound good, but are extremely wrong (i.e., "the untouchables are so high up the pyramid that nobody from the lower classes is allowed to touch them, for fear the untouchables' spiritual balance will be corroded" or some such shit).

Anyway, I really hope she gets busted for this.

Ditto on the found this through livejournal. It's a really powerful tool for spreading stories and interesting ideas...

I just can't wait until someone phones that number to find out if it's her. And I know someone eventually will..

I agree with Anne, most professors and TA's don't have time to do that kind of google-check on every paper they grade, they've got too many papers to get through, plus their own work to do.

Here's a question - when/how will we know if she handed it in or not???

mc asked "Why this more so than the pppowerbook job?"

Well mc, people seem to be the most sympathetic when it comes to issues that they can personally relate to. For instance, USians who think of themselves as "Christians" get all riled up when somebody wants to pull the plug on their braindead wife, yet they sit idly by while 100,000 innocent Iraqis are killed by illegal imperial aggression.

I think that the LKP bitch and moan faction could probably imagine their daughter being verbally savaged in the backroom of some dark dirty corner of the internets (no offense, Nate) and they take offense at the thought.

These people need to familiarize themselves with the concept of "just desserts". Laura got hers (I sincerely hope)

This conversation has just made a turn towards the crude.

Nate:

Careful, the nutjob right-wing quotient in this thread is alarmingly high.

Will Laura get expelled? Quite possibly. It will certainly place a shadow over the rest of her previous scores. Does this mean that she will not be able to get into another college? No, there's always University of Phoenix or a community college. While taking the money might be extreme, what she did was wrong, and she shouldn't get away with it. She's buying what I (and several others) worked d*mned hard for. Granted, all this talk about plagerism has me sweating about whether I forgot to attribute a few lines of my thesis or not, but I NEVER did anything approaching this. For a degree to mean something, this cannot pass. Kids have gotten away with plagerism too much, and it needs to stop somewhere. If it needs to start with Laura, so be it.
And, if this is not the Laura in question, then she won't be handing in this paper, and the University will quietly apologize. If she did hand in the paper, then she deserves to be expelled.

Accountability, or lack thereof, is what is bringing down this world. Having been a TA and a lecturer, I have seen students get away with cheating and plagiarism by the grace of being sports players or having parents who write blank checks. People with balls and a sense of humor have to break this downward spiral. There's no reason people sans conscience should be allowed to progress because no one stood up to them.

As for "taking advantage" of Laura, she opened that gate when she asked another person to abet her in plagiarism.

Does this mean I'm a Chivasite now?

Dear Nate,

I'm wondering if you've considered all of the consequences of what you've done. As somebody who works in this field I can tell you that catching a plagiarist at it is a good thing and I thank you for your efforts. We also have very strict rules about not disclosing a students' grades, and while I'm aware that you aren't bound by these rules, I wonder if you have stopped to consider the reasons for them.

Ms. Krishna is almost certainly going to be in a very great deal of trouble simply for getting caught cheating. From the Indian Community College website:
"The India University Student Handbook reads: "Scholastic integrity lies at the heart of this academic institution. All of its members should expect to be evaluated on their own work. Plagiarism, collusion and other forms of cheating or scholastic dishonesty are incompatible with the principles of Indian Community College. Students engaging in such activities are subject to loss of credit and expulsion from the University" (p.36)."
And I don't pity her for that because she was warned ahead of time and it's her own fool fault.

You, however, appear to have decided to punish her above and beyond what her educational institution calls for. You have publicly humiliated her and made her into a laughingstock. All at a time when she is almost certainly going to be feeling pretty horrid to begin with. I wonder if that was necessary and why you felt that you had the perogative to take this action. Perhaps you should have taken a moment to put yourself in her shoes before making her into a living joke for no better reason than your own agrandizment. If this ends poorly, with Ms. Krishna doing something even more foolish and dramatic, then your actions will be a good deal less comedic.

okay, i lied. i just read all the comments.

no No NO!
NO MORE TERRI SCHIAVO!
AHHHHH!

Morality is subjective, but there are no heros here. Nate does not deserve praise as "Laura" does not deserve to be defended.

Speaking of morality...Johnie Cochran just died.

Sean, the problem with Nate putting himself in her shoes is that, well, he's not a frikking plagiarist.

Nate, I see a lawsuit in your future pal. That being said, Laura's major problem appears to be her incredible naivete, and the only lesson for that is some "hard knocks". But wouldn't it be ironic if in fact the joke's really on you, say by being arrested tonight by "Laura" in an FBI undercover sting for selling fraudulent material via the net.

Yes, because FBI's set up HUGE sting operations to arrest seller's of fake school papers. Idiot.

Forget the lawsuit. Everyone who hates Nate just go to one of the "Week of Kindness" shows and shut them down. Then drag him into the back alley and beat him till the eyes pop out.

I'm in college, and I have gotten the 'plagiarism lecture' in every class that required papers at both colleges I've attended. My western civ professor spent literally 30 minutes on it. It happened in my senior level history colloquium. Kids know what plagiarism is and what the consequences are if you get caught. If they don't, they don't belong in college, straight up.

I differ from most people here in that I don't view college as some hefty experience of hardwork that this girl is somehow degrading. I'm in college to get a degree with my name on it, don't bother sugarcoating it. My problem is that plagiarism is a blatently stated rule which she blatently broke. I'm not going to say I've never cheated in school. But I know it's wrong and if I was to get caught I'd accept whatever punishment given because I CHEATED.

Matty said:

"Thank God the legal system doesn't work like this.:

Try being a father falsely accused of child abuse or spousal abuse, or a man falsely accused of rape. In those cases, the American legal system works EXACTLY like this.

jeff:

Don't worry, the majority of those calling "cruel" in this thread barely made it through high school, let alone college...

karma. i hear that getting tossed around a lot in this discussion. so let me see if i understand--fuck it, let's go right to godwin's law, don't pass go, don't collect 200--let's say 6 million Jews lived in Germany and environs in the 30s, and ending up being slaughtered...as i understand karma, something they had done in a past life, or in this one, would have meant they "deserved" that fate.

it makes me think karma. is. fucking. stupid.

also, right now, somewhere, probably right here in hollywood, some disgusting vile horrid evil guy is just getting up from another night of fucking incredibly hot girls, maybe 3, and doing his first line of coke. off of the youngest girl's ass. and he's very happy. and will die very happy.

there is no karma. there are only acts, good and bad. to me, nate's act was somewhere between chaotic neutral and lawful neutral, but laura k was chaotic evil all the way. my two cents. have a nice life, everyone!!

Satanic? No. Vicious? Borderline. Funny? IMHO no. Hoax? Probably, but surprisingly clever - who'd have thought that a morality play would be such a hit?

Survey the comments, know that this is the array of vengeful and quick-to-judge people that form jury pools (that alone should frighten you even if Gonzales wasn't Attorney General). And if Laura Krishna is actually somebody ELSE, Nate can expect to see that jury in court. To me both parties are pathetic, Laura also gets pity as a victim, Nate just evokes revulsion. [But, jeebus, if she can't tell it's bogus and realize it's a good $75 lesson, she's just too stupid and lazy to pity much. She deserves to get busted anyway - the question is how?.] If you choose to teach someone a lesson, it becomes incumbent upon you to think it through - but that would have taken some effort and you don't evidence yourself as any less lazy than Laura.

BTW "really so free of guilt" != "never plagiarized anything"

"Tony=Idiot": Sorry my humor went over your head. By the way, what nationality is your last name, or did you have it legally changed?

Nate, you rock! Some people need to get a grip. Laura K. Krishna deserves whatever she gets, even if she only gets an F. Thanks for the entertainment. Laura's 15 minutes start now.

Laura has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Sorry to repeat, but, was the paper really due on Monday morning? Was that established? If so she would've already turned it in.

If not, Nate went public with this way to early. :(

(I've just spent about 2 hours reading the original post and every single comment that's been posted)

-this is a compelling example of cantagious media - the comedy group is sure to benefit.

-plagiarism is bullshit and boring. no place for it on university campus.

-the poster who pointed out that credentials on the net are bullshit hit it right on the head. It's the premise of the OP.

-i'm surprised at how conflicted I feel about wanting this to be real and seeing what unfolds versus suspecting it's a well-crafted memetic slice of shit.

BTW, i have a grad degree, work in university blah blah blah

I saw this via Boing Boing and wanted to add my input as a grad student and a former teacher.

There are two issues here: the first is whether it is right for Nate to publicize his response to a scam. The second is if it's right to publicize the name of the person in question.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I love reading about scam-baiters and their exploits. I think it helps regular people to feel like they can do something about frauds on the Internet, and makes me feel, at least, like there are at least a few honest folks out there.

That said, I don't agree w/ Nate's decision to publish Laura's full name, if only to avoid a potential lawsuit. There's a big difference between a public figure and a private citizen, and subjecting a person to undue scrutiny can be problematic, to say the least. What if she's under 18? That opens up a whole new can o' worms.

When I've Googled to find out if my students' writing has been taken from other sources, I don't search for their name, I search for an uncommon phrase. Identifying her as Laura K. P. doesn't take away from a good story, doesn't keep the administration of her school from finding this blog, and guarantees you'll be able to tell more good stories in the future.

If you don't want the world to see you in a dunce hat, don't be a dunce.
I have no pity for her.

Publicity hoax.

Congratulations, Nate: you're on Yahoo's Cruel Sites of the Day! LOL, that's how I found this thread, anyway.

Can't really think of anything that hasn't already been said (not that that has stopped anyone so far). But I gotta admit, it gave me a laugh.

Nate is performing a service to everyone by his actions: he teaches Laura a lesson, he makes the university aware of someone on honor roll who doesn't deserve to be, and future employers who give a shit about ethics won't hire her. If some people are entertained in the process, who cares? I like seeing people punished for wrongs that would normally go unpunished.

Laura's life is NOT ruined. I was a university TA for three years (Recently. Not anymore, thank god!) and she will NOT be expelled. In all likelihood she will NOT be kicked out of class. I did take the time to google the suspicious-looking papers I graded and found scores of plagiarizers, but when I referred them to the professor in charge, only about 1 in 3 got kicked out of class. The rest just got a low grade or a redo.

Laura will probably not learn from this, "Gee, plagiarism is wrong!" She will probably think that Nate is evil and the world is so unfair. But the employers that do not google resumes, and the employer who care about results more than methods, will still be more than willing to hire her because she will still have the degree.

And while exposing her on the internet is a little extreme, because this is such a problem nowadays I think it is perfectly acceptable. This girl deserves to be taken down a notch or two. She's not going to be stoned or crucified. She's just going to have to deal with some people making rude comments about her morals. Big deal. At the VERY least, Laura will have learned that not everyone thinks that life is just about jumping through hoops. Not everyone has as little personal integrity as she does.

I think one thing bears mentioning. Everything anyone has to say right now that isn't actual useful information has been said Eleventy BILLION times already in the thread. And, PS. My site is awesome, and everyone should click my name and go there. Hooray!

GAHHH!!! IT'S NOT PLAGIARISM! IT'S WORK FOR HIRE!

If Nate had written a paper and she had copied it without his knowledge and not given him credit, that would be plagiarism. If she gets Nate to write a paper just for her, that's just subcontracting.

It's still the WRONG, WRONG way to go about getting a college education. I'm not sure that you needed to make her name public, though. Sure, post this under a pseudonym, tell her professor, get her failed... but publicising her name like this means that Google will call her unethical forever. That's the thing: she's clearly lacking in ethics NOW, but she might change! People do!

Because come on, even if we didn't cheat to get our degrees, who among us was not an insufferable prick in our college years? Would you like the worst thing you ever did posted on the internet, with your full name, for all to see, even though you'd vowed never to do it again?

This is in response to prior comments like >

Puleeze! Let's say a guy IMs me to meet for sex, wanting to cheat on his wife. Let's say I want to let his wife know what a louse he is. Perhaps I set up cameras, tape record conversations, and the like. Let's say I later send the wife all the evidence I have & I also go the added step of setting up a blog, saying "Joe Blow is a cheating bastard." Who have I hurt here? (Well, yes, perhaps the wife, which makes this example kinda silly... but stay with me...) Have *I* done the unethical act? I mean I didn't tell family, friends, and God that I wouldn't cheat on the wife; he did. Just as Laura and Nate are not bound by the same ethics. (She has the honor code to abide by, not him.) The cheater deserves what they get and has no right to call "foul."

I know it has been pointed out that she may be the one pulling the prank here. I mean, she can't REALLY be as stupid as she portrayed herself in the IMs. For the love of all that is holy, he offered to do the work for $60 and she countered with $75??? What a nitwit.

-- Clio :)

Nate, man, I salute you. I actually hope it's fake, just so you can take credit for creating it in full. The response you've gotten here is fantastic.

Or awful, if it's real and the wrong person got pegged for it. But you know. Impressive, either way. We always said you'd be famous someday. :-p

Hey everybody, Nate has made another post. Check it for the latest news on the whole saga.

http://www.aweekofkindness.com/blog/

I hope you're happy, Nate. You completely ruined my life. Not only am I being kicked out of school, but the Dean of Students personally whipped the crap out of me with a length of garden hose. My landlord burned down his own building just so I'd be homeless. I'd sue you for this, but I was told I won't have the right to sue in U.S. courts after I am deported tomorrow. And just when I was about to finally get my heart transplant!

I'd use stronger language, but there are parental controls on my AOL account that prohibit it.

Laura

Great read over all. The comment section is facinating.. though much to repetetive.d. Fun. Thankyou for the entertainment.

While I don't think the girl in question necessarily deserves to be crucified, I'd say a public lynching -- a literal one, not the figurative lynching of being defamed online -- would be perfectly justified. It'd be one thing if she were in grade school and forgot to put a sentence or two from an encyclopedia into her own words. However, someone who shows such terribly poor judgement combined with more than a fair dose of idiocy should either be killed or sterilized, preferably the former.

More realistically, the sorry bitch probably isn't going to get what she deserves, but I suppose what she deserves is classified as "assault" and is therefore illegal. She's probably not even going to have any serious ramifications with regards to her academic career. That's not to say said academic career shouldn't crash and burn (violently), but it probably won't. Sad.

To go off on a bit of a tangent, heh.. why don't people just get off their asses and learn to write? The "last minute" problem is easily solved with either minimal time management or a talent for writing stream-of-consciousness -- try writing three-and-a-half pages, single spaced, in half an hour, get an A+ on it. THEN tell me that writing five pages on religion is difficult.. which is bullshit.

The thing is, I guess a lot of people just plain don't know how to write. Look at the people who are teaching America's children nowadays. My first job was as a personal assistant to a professor of education at a local university. These are graduate students we're talking about, and they could barely turn out an articulate sentence. The professor in question was highly upset that she was, basically, required to pass these students, because her potential tenure was ALMOST ENTIRELY DETERMINED by student evaluations.

This is absolute bullshit. There are people out there that want to coddle morons who can't work up the balls to write their own work (I'm sorry, but nothing that could feasibly happen is too harsh for scum like that), while one of the most wonderful professors I've known was practically thrown out on her ass for "being too harsh on students."

So sad..

So when do we find out what happened, if ever?

Sorry to close this thread so soon, but we have another entry. Go thee to the top entry on the blog and do likewise. That's from the Bible.

Oh my dears, how you wander about in the moral deep forest with nary a trail of crumbs to lead you home. Fear not. Otto is here..

" hope you know that this girl will get kicked out of college, and probably won't be able to get into any other colleges because her name will be blacklisted"
But, my sweet, of course he does. That was the purpose of the exercise. And it makes him and a few of the rest of us very happy. Removal of the ethically challenged from the academic gene pool is not necessarily a bad thing.

"the college is a provider of a service, for which they charge a hefty fee. This service, bluntly enough, is the diploma"

Umhh..no, Deary. They do charge a hefty fee, but not for the Diploma. They charge a fee for teaching you and building your character to be a leader of those who don’t go to college. This in theory includes ethics. The diploma is merely the assurance that you did you part.

In addition to advance calculus and comparative religions, good colleges teach ethics. What leaders of persons – heaven forefend we should use a sexist term here – are expected to know is how to weigh right and wrong. LKP fails this. Just imagine Ken Ley had been pulled up short on paying his dork roommate to write his thesis on Hamlet and the Danish economic model – or Arthur Anderson had been caught with the bookkeeping 103 formulas penned under his watchband. Would the world – or at least NASDQ - not be a better place?

"Hey now Mr. Nate Kushner, did you ever think about what it would be like to be in Ms. Laura Krishna's shoes right now?"
Not being Nate Kushner, I think yes and joyfully, notwithstanding the fact that LKP’s shoes probably have lethal toes and five inch heels. Not knowing Nate’s preferences on these matters I will still wager a guess that he would enjoy that less.

"Do you honestly believe that any more than one in five government workers are honest?
"
Of course not, Pipkin, so we are comforted in the thought that MS LKP will not have to sell crack or send spam, although that may lie in her defined aptitudes, to keep body and soul together, but there is surely a fine future in civil service awaiting her after she recovers from the shock of expulsion.

"I'm a firm believer that we cannot achieve justice through torture, lasting peace through war, or academic integrity through utter deception " Well if it makes you happy to believe that we can achieve justice, please do so, but we obviously cannot cannot achieve academic integrity at all. Whatever your belief system is, having this one person, assuming that she is not just trying to get her roomate LKP kicked out of school in order to obtain both her top bunk and her boyfriend, won't do it, but it has its charms.

"Imagine yourself in this girl's position: even if you were to recognize that what you've done is absolutely reprehensible, would consider yourself redeemed by Nate's vigilante behavior?"
Pardon me, sweet thing, but redemption is not the goal, I believe. Just good, clean, mean minded fun. On the other hand, the side of the angels preventing another ding dong from becoming the CEO of another Global Crossing actually does achieve some justice.

"1.That Nate is an elitist dick. Yes, clearly true; he's in a sketch comedy group with known dicks like this `Mike Still' fellow. "

But he's a funny dick, Sweet Pea.

"This girl may have committed a particularly egregious act of academic dishonesty, but who the hell are we to gather round and hurl stones? Are we all really so free of guilt?"
Umhhhh….well…yeah. You aren't, eh?

And let's face it, bubba: If anyone this whale dust dumb gets out of the institution with a degree, she will only serve to drag down the value of ours, which is already deflated to nearly flat. Of course if she’s on the honor list at India, theirs is pretty well devalued as it is. That young woman is too stupid to suck air.
College is a meritocracy. She don't belong in a cap and gown.

"This was a really fucked up sadistic thing to do."
YEaaaah. That was the point..

"That means that Nate has actually ruined the life of an actual person because of his idealism.'

The "actual" thing is open to discussion me thinks. LKP will land on top, probably because she has the mammaries to do it, and she is too dumb to know that she can't. I mean, money is no object does NOT go correspond to $60 or $75.
As for ruining her ENTIRE life, not to worry. There will be Global Crossings, Adelphias and World Coms for Laura on the other side of academia, with or without mortar board. Laura will surely find her own level of corporate depravity as she moves forward in this vale of tears.

"but who the hell are we to gather round and hurl stones"a
Umhh..like..dude..we are, you know, people who spent a lot of time and money writing our own papers and protecting the value of our degrees from the LKP’s of the world. Go Bears.

"What you are doing is wrong, deud. I write papers for people all the time. It is a substantial part of income"
No. You have it backwards. What YOU are doing is wrong. You are enabling people who might pick up a clue or two to waste not only their own money but that of their states or their college foundations by not attending to business. Nate, on the other hand, is just delightfully mean and spiteful. There is a difference. Go back to Philosophy 1a.

" I can pretty much assure you that this chick is NOT going to get kicked out of school. " And Enron becomes clearer by the moment. Did Jeff Skilling go to India?

"You may think you're being an instrument of karma, but you're really just ruining someone's life."
OK, look. Sweatie, he’s not, so unknot your knickers and enjoy the irony. Laura made the choice to do this, not this Nate guy, and a kid with that much larceny at a tender age unfortunately has a pretty good future ahead of her. The girl's got balls and no conscience, a tried and true combination for success in adult life. Trust me. I'm old. Very old. I know these things. In the meantime he is improving the quality of the lives of the rest of us sufficiently, that the scales tip to the side of the angels.

"As a college student, I have to say that I'm offended." Lissen up, sonny, you don't get to be offended before you get your bachelors. Just don't ask Nate to write your papers and you have a shot of it.

"ME-L - Then the majority of "art" and "essays" out there are plagerized to one degree or another, because I read and hear the same ideas over and over again in books and movies, in magazines and online"
Oh, Merci. No, sweetie. No, No NO. There's this thing, you see, called a footnote. And another called “acknowledgement”.. Nobody, my pumpkin, expects you to draw your ideas from the air. Kant got most of those already, but we expect you to recombine the intellectual blessings you have received from the great, wide world with credits. (Like the things at the end of Bridget Jones Diary). That's not plagiarism. It's actually called "research”, which comes in chapter 12.

"you have deliberately and with malice aforethought, made a conscious decision to harm another human." Well, just as the "actual" thing is open to discussion, we could go with the "human" denomination. Who taught you to over use words you heard on Law and Order? Even if you wrote that one yourself, you get an 'F'. It is also obvious that Nate’s decision was conscious – he seems a thoughtful and intelligent person.

"You have been intentionally cruel to another human." Lord save us all from bombast. YES. THAT'S the POINT. If he harmed ducks, for instance, PETA would be after him big time. Any way, he has shown her up and she has embarrassed herself. Harm is perhaps not the right word here. Now pay attention in English so you can learn not to write like a drama queen.

"You exposed another person’s true identity on the Internet, as if she were a child molester!"
I don't think there are too many gated communities trying to keep plagiarists out of town. Unfortunately the current educational system seems to foster the quaint idea that you can do just about anything without accountability. The truth is, and may I remind you that you can believe me on this because I am old, that anything this dishonest and beyond that UNBELIEVABLY STUPID can get you caught, at which point you have no right for protection from discovery by even your most distant relatives and neighbors. WHAT ARE THEY TEACHING YOU CHILDREN THESE DAYS, ANYWAY???

"You have affected her entire life from this day forward"
An 'F' for bombast. What they apparently don't teach in today’s educational system along with not teaching ethics is to refrain from misplaced hyperbole. From this day forward? She’s not getting married here, you know. The entire life??? They really don't teach you to write for squat, do they? As for actual, she may be. Or she may be a solipsistic fragment for us all or a joke by Matt or an evil plot by the roommate with an eye to her boyfriend. For all we know, Laura may be a five hundred pound cross dressing felon writing from the prison library.

"You have affected her entire life from this day forward"...as for that writing thing, repetition and redundancy is another no no. Is there anything below 'F'?

See here, my little woodchucks. Mr Nate had an opportunity to play with someone doing something reprehensible. If she had just been dumb, which she seems to be, you might have reason for sympathy or at a little outrage that anyone would attack the challenged – although where would we be without “Don’t call me stupid!” (Footnote: A Fish Called Wanda”), but it’s always open season on petty larceny.

What I don't understand is why everyone's blaming Nate for Laura's 'public' ridicule when it's everyone else's insatiable need for controversy that has made this the internet phenomenon it is today.

I feel it's the people bitching and linking that are driving her supposed humiliation, not the blog entry of a comedy writer that would have otherwise flown completely under the radar.

Blame yourselves the 'public' part. Jeeze.

That said, I think Laura can only benefit by learning that money can't buy solutions to all her problems. Better now then later! And anyone who thinks that getting expelled from college is going to 'ruin her life' must be in college themselves, or at least suffer from a lack of perspective. It's just a piece of paper, folks. Work for a few years and college will seem almost pointless, superceded by the skills you'll pick up actually *doing* something.

Not everyone need to be a doctor or a lawyer to live a good life.

Nice to know that quite a few people don't have a problem with cheating and plagarism.

I feel that what Nate did was extreme. But keep in mind, this is a comedy website, so his actions were in part for humor and publicity. As far as it for being at another person's expense, most if not all humor is at another's expense, unfortunately. Plus, this woman should not have been trolling the internet for a paper in the first place, a mere 5-page one at that. Only time will tell as to whether or not she'll be expelled, but if "money's no object", I'm sure her parents will pay to make sure she isn't. And given her wealth, I'm sure she won't suffer too much.

The people who sympathize with Ms. Krishna really speaks volumes about the ethical decline in our country.

Hey guys, Nate would like to direct everybody to the newest thread for commenting.

http://www.aweekofkindness.com/blog

• Home
• News and Shows
• Meet AWOK
• Blog
• Photos
• Videos
• Press
• Links
• MySpace
• Contact