Turnitin is an Internet-based plagiarism-prevention service
created by iParadigms, LLC. Typically, universities and high
schools buy licenses to submit essays to the Turnitin website,
which checks the documents for unoriginal content. The results
can be used to identify similarities to existing sources or can
be used in formative assessment to help students learn how to
avoid plagiarism and improve their writing. Students may be
required by schools to submit essays to Turnitin, as a deterrent
to plagiarism. This has been a source of criticism, with some
students refusing to do so in the belief that requiring it
constitutes a presumption of guilt. Additionally, critics have
alleged that use of the software violates educational privacy
and intellectual property laws. Parent company iParadigms, LLC,
also offers a similar plagiarism detection service for newspaper
editors, book and magazine publishers called iThenticate, and
runs the informational website Plagiarism.org. Other tools
included with the Turnitin sui