The operator of an essay-mill company has agreed to shut down all of his Web sites and to stay out of the term-paper business, according to the terms of a settlement agreement reached last month in a federal class-action lawsuit.
The businessman, Rusty R. Carroll, of R2C2 Inc., was also ordered to pay $20,000 to cover costs associated with the lawsuit. Out of that amount, Mr. Carroll must pay to run advertisements in both The Chronicle and The Wall Street Journal announcing the settlement. (The ads began running this week.) A $5,000 portion will also be divided between the two term-paper authors who led the suit, Chad Weidner and Karolien Walravens. The authors said the company’s site sold their work without permission.
Mr. Carroll will be required to pay $300,000 if he violates any of the settlement terms.
Eric J. Conn, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP who represented the students, said he was pleased with the outcome. “Our entire purpose was to stop the conduct,” Mr. Conn said. “Since Internet resources are so readily available, we think this ruling is a positive step to enhance academic integrity.”
Mr. Weidner and Ms. Walravens originally moved to take legal action against Mr. Carroll and R2C2 four years ago, after they discovered a paper that they co-authored in 1998 had been made available on R2C2-affiliated Web sites without their permission. They found others in their same situation and filed the class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in East Saint Louis, Ill., citing five allegations—including copyright infringement and unfair competition.
Mr. Carroll’s lawyer, Hugh R. Williams, called his client a “good guy who got caught up in the business and didn’t realize the implications of what he was doing.”
“He was clearly doing something wrong in business by offering copyrighted material without permission,” said Mr. Williams, who took over as Mr. Carroll’s lawyer only for the settlement phase. “He will have the chance to recover and go on with his life.”
Mr. Conn said anyone who can prove his paper has been distributed online without consent through R2C2-affiliated sites can be considered a class member who is eligible to get a portion of the settlement money (though individual payments are expected to be nominal). Though Mr. Conn said those sites hosted thousands of papers, the number of potential class members is hard to determine. Many academics discover their work is accessible on an essay mill only if they stumble upon it by accident, he said.
The settlement will be finalized in a public hearing in East Saint Louis in January, which both Mr. Conn and Mr. Williams say is the standard operating procedure for any class-action lawsuit. Though the hearing presents a forum for any class members to protest the settlement, Mr. Williams said he “would be surprised if anyone shows up” because the amount of money at stake is so small.
Mr. Williams said this ruling sends a message, however, on how the courts are likely to perceive such businesses. “By no means was my client one of the bigger fish, and people are going to find out that this isn’t going to pay off,” he said.
