Actually - there's nothing you can do to change your grade. If you had NOT 'caved in' and relinquished your code he/she could have failed you & there's nothing at all you might have been able to do.

There are paralells of a less despicible nature. For example, there are a number of professors who will announce, quite casually, that they don't give out A's. Ever. Period. That in itself has severe ramifications for persons relying upon a scholarship for their tuition. That has serious implications towards that now utterly inattainable 4.0 grade point average you may have been working your convenient appendage off for. And you know what you can do about it? The same thing. Nothing.

It is completely within the domain of the professor to grade their own students... at least in this country. And since professors (and teachers even less) don't make a lot of money, most of them supplement their income with either careers as writers of books, or in your case apparently software.

(...ahem...In My Personal Opinion:) It is a well established fact that (at least here in New York) teachers in general have the worst record for software-related abuses. I can remember personally growing up in a computer store as a family business, and in the computer labs at elementary through high school teachers and faculty would constantly hit me up for pirated copies of software because they knew who I was related to. (Back in the days of PFS:Write & such...) The ethical abuses of an authority figure in a public school extorting software from a student, IMHO exceeds even sexual harassment in the workplace - but there's no real protection under the law designed for the likes of geeks. Such abuses are common because they are easy to get away with. Any legislation adopted in the future should be phrased to protect students - though it should probably be marketed more as protecting children if it were ever to get enough public outcry...

But I think this is the same sort of thing. In your case it was simply more direct. This was also a movie plot for the film Real Genius with Val Kilmer, and even in that film he had to get someone from Congress involved to stop the exploitation of his work.

And naturally I think the most ironic part of all of it is that you have to pay them a lot of money for the privilege of being used for cheap skilled labor in this manner.

Ultimately - the answer lies in direct secrecy. As with the original Texas case sited previously in the thread, the mistake was in exposing your work to others prematurely. History is replete with examples of usurpers of the credit for inventions. One doesn't have to look far - take the case of Thomas Edison (gasp!) and how he worked over Tesla in the same manner. No one would be having this lovely chat on this or any other thread without that deal...



Wait! This isn't a Parachute, this is a Backpack!

In reply to Re: (3) (OT) University Exploitation by gregor42
in thread (OT) Professional Employees: who owns your thoughts? by Ovid

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