2008 Woodie Awards
YU Fined $50,000 for Posting ACS Test on Website
Ashrei Bayewitz
Issue date: 8/31/05 Section: News
After months of litigation, Yeshiva University and former Assistant Professor Wayne Schnatter were ordered to pay $50,000 to the American Chemical Society (ACS). According to the ACS, Schnatter illegally posted two copyrighted ACS examinations on the YU website between May and December, 2002.
In the consent judgment issued by Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, on March 24, 2005, the defendants admitted that Schnatter posted the 1994 and 1998 organic chemistry examinations with their answer keys on his faculty website, in an "apparent copyright infringement." Given the defendants admission, Cederbaum decided "in favor of ACS and against YU and Schnatter," ordering the $50,000 payment and prohibiting any further infringement of ACS copyrights.
Although the tests were several years old, the ACS asserted that the test questions were still in wide use throughout the country and were only available through the ACS. Consequently, the illegal posting on the YU website forced the ACS to accelerate the production of a new test in 2004 and to withdraw the older tests from circulation at more than 120 colleges and universities.
In a statement to The Commentator, Dr. Schnatter explained that the whole matter "arose from a concatenated set of misunderstandings." Beginning with the "erroneous belief" that the ACS retired the old exams after issuing a new exam in 2002, Schnatter permitted a student to place the tests on reserve in the library. This permission, as Schnatter understood it, did not mean that the student would post the exams on the faculty website. However, because the student was used to posting other exams and quizzes on the website, a miscommunication occurred and the ACS exams were also posted. Moreover, Schnatter insisted that when he saw the exams on the internet, he believed that the student had received permission to post them from someone else.
The tests are organized by the Exams Institute, a division of the ACS. Founded in 1930, the institute produces assessment material for instructors with the goal of enhancing chemistry education. With its 53 tests that cover a spectrum of chemistry courses, the institute encourages instructors to compare their students' scores to calculated national averages for the tests. With strict guidelines for the administration and submission of the tests, the validity of the national averages is dependent on the students not having seen the test beforehand. Currently, the webpages for the composite averages of the 1994 and 1998 Organic Chemistry Exams note that the tests were "compromised by being posted on the web from May 2002- December 2002."
Professor Thomas Holme, director of the institute, notes: "The use of ACS Exams as part of the assessment of student learning in chemistry classes has a tradition that reaches back over 70 years. The institute must be ready to take the appropriate steps to assure that the materials we create continue to provide high quality and secure assessment when an instructor chooses to use them in his or her courses."
In the consent judgment issued by Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, on March 24, 2005, the defendants admitted that Schnatter posted the 1994 and 1998 organic chemistry examinations with their answer keys on his faculty website, in an "apparent copyright infringement." Given the defendants admission, Cederbaum decided "in favor of ACS and against YU and Schnatter," ordering the $50,000 payment and prohibiting any further infringement of ACS copyrights.
Although the tests were several years old, the ACS asserted that the test questions were still in wide use throughout the country and were only available through the ACS. Consequently, the illegal posting on the YU website forced the ACS to accelerate the production of a new test in 2004 and to withdraw the older tests from circulation at more than 120 colleges and universities.
In a statement to The Commentator, Dr. Schnatter explained that the whole matter "arose from a concatenated set of misunderstandings." Beginning with the "erroneous belief" that the ACS retired the old exams after issuing a new exam in 2002, Schnatter permitted a student to place the tests on reserve in the library. This permission, as Schnatter understood it, did not mean that the student would post the exams on the faculty website. However, because the student was used to posting other exams and quizzes on the website, a miscommunication occurred and the ACS exams were also posted. Moreover, Schnatter insisted that when he saw the exams on the internet, he believed that the student had received permission to post them from someone else.
The tests are organized by the Exams Institute, a division of the ACS. Founded in 1930, the institute produces assessment material for instructors with the goal of enhancing chemistry education. With its 53 tests that cover a spectrum of chemistry courses, the institute encourages instructors to compare their students' scores to calculated national averages for the tests. With strict guidelines for the administration and submission of the tests, the validity of the national averages is dependent on the students not having seen the test beforehand. Currently, the webpages for the composite averages of the 1994 and 1998 Organic Chemistry Exams note that the tests were "compromised by being posted on the web from May 2002- December 2002."
Professor Thomas Holme, director of the institute, notes: "The use of ACS Exams as part of the assessment of student learning in chemistry classes has a tradition that reaches back over 70 years. The institute must be ready to take the appropriate steps to assure that the materials we create continue to provide high quality and secure assessment when an instructor chooses to use them in his or her courses."