I resent our fourteen year olds having to consider how their ideas might look when they are forty years older and running for office.Did you think the public had a right to see Hillary Rodham's thesis from Wellesley college when she ran for Senate? Many on this site did.
And I resent this commercial site getting and archiving my child's intellectual property for free...But the public school system MANDATES my child's term papers be submitted to this company.
Have you complained to your school and school board? Do other parents agree with you? In the end, what your local public school does is a local issue.
As I teacher I know there are other methods of detecting plagiarism that don't require use of outside sites, but do require more effort (and a bit of technical savvy) by the teacher.
The basis of this thread is that a growing number of sources will not allow FreeRepublic to use excerpted material, even when it is fully and properly attributed. This precedent could have a chilling effect on ALL research and discussion.
Yes, I do think the writer of a college thesis is (or should be) held more responsible for what they write than is (or should be) the fourteen year old who is just learning what a "term paper" is (and who is just learning how to use footnotes to cite excerpts).
As for complaining to the School Board - no luck there. (Are you surprised to learn they are overwhelmingly democrats?)