An Interesting Viewer

I had an interesting viewing of my blog that relates to something I mentioned previously. I received a hit from a service called PlagScan. This is a service used by teachers and universities to check for instances of plagiarism by students. When a student submits their paper, the teacher can submit the document to PlagScan, which then scans for any instances where a match is found online.

I don't see any reason this would be connected to Manweiler/Dickerman, it just wouldn't make any sense. I mentioned before that I appeared to have a student at the University of Virginia going through my blog quite a bit. They initially came across my blog while looking for information on the Andrew Alston case, and then began viewing other posts about my case.

It's pretty clear that someone used material from my blog for a class paper at UVA. Whether the PlagScan hit means they actually plagiarized something I wrote or if they just quoted something from the blog, that is something I don't have any way of knowing. Personally I couldn't care less if they actually plagiarized me, especially if they at least brought up my case in their paper. Any plagiarism (and this hit doesn't mean there was any to begin with) would be between the student and the university. I've got bigger problems than someone copying some comments of mine on their school paper. Additionally I have no way of knowing whether they just used me as a cited source for the Andrew Alston case, or if they actually included information on my specific legal case as well.

Given the amount of equal attention they gave the evidence postings I made, and their interest in Platania's emailed threat, there is a chance they included my case in their paper. Again though, I have no way of knowing what my blog was used for on this paper or to what extent it was cited, I just know it was obviously used in someone's assignment. I found it an interesting development, though I'm not sure whether it's anything that would amount to something. I would find it amusing however if my case was presented in the student's assignment, and Joseph Platania's colleagues showed it to him. After all he is an adjunct professor at UVA in addition to his job as a prosecutor, and anyone writing a report on the Andrew Alston case has a high chance of being a law student. I imagine it would be quite the deserved embarrassment for Platania.