The recent lawsuit filed by Duke graduate student Blue Macellari demonstrates one of the dangerous of self-publishing on the Internet-theft of intellectual property. During her senior year as an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College, Macellari posted on her personal website a 15-page paper that she wrote about South Africa. Now her paper appears on three term-paper websites. One website, doingmyhomework.com, has gone so far as to post at the end of her paper, "this paper is the property of doingmyhomework.com copyright 2003-2005."

Clearly, Macellari had every right to publish her work on the Internet. And, without a doubt, she owns the copyright to her own creation. The term-paper websites engaged in blatant copyright infringement by making a verbatim copy of her work and offering it to the public.

Macellari's case raises concern of the potentially chilling effect that intellectual property theft could have on the sharing of thought on the

Internet-the closest thing we have to a global marketplace of ideas. Professors and students may become increasingly more hesitant to publish their research, class slides and other educational materials on the Internet if they fear that others will steal their work and profit from it.

It would be a mistake, however, if students and professors stopped posting their work on the Internet. The onus is on the websites to respect others' intellectual property rights and not use others' work without first obtaining permission. The onus is also on students writing papers to cite properly the sources that they use. Obviously, it's wrong to submit a verbatim copy of a term paper obtained on the Internet.

It is permissible, however, to cite an idea derived from one, although it is does seem risky and of poor scholarship to cite a paper written by an undergraduate and never subjected to the rigorous peer review that journal articles undergo.

The attention that Macellari's case has brought to term-paper websites leads to questions about the ethics of students who consciously sell their papers to these sites.

While we can't tell students that they can't sell their intellectual property to term-paper websites as an avenue of self-publication, we can point out that they are enabling an industry with databases of term papers that are overwhelmingly used for plagiarism.

Additionally, students who sell their papers should be cautioned that they should ensure they understand what their rights are in terms of who owns the copyright and who retains any profits made from the paper.

Lastly, while it's not the responsibility of universities to police term-paper websites, it is important for the institutions to foster a culture of academic integrity and take disciplinary action against students who plagiarize.

Professors at some universities have even used software that scans students' papers for blocks of text that are identical matches to content found on the Internet.

Macellari's lawsuit is instructive in showing the perils of publishing one's work on the Internet. Students and professors, however, should not overreact and let these risks deter them from self-publishing.

Instead, they should be careful in copyrighting their work and taking due recourse when copyright infringements are discovered.