OC Professor Sues 5 Unknown Students Who Posted Exams Online

ORANGE, CA — Most students will acknowledge that cheating is part of the culture at most colleges. (Indeed, as Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana once said, "If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.")

But don't tell that to David Berkovitz.

The assistant professor at Chapman University in Orange filed a lawsuit in federal court last week against five unknown students who, he said, posted his exams online on the website CourseHero.com.

While Berkovitz doesn't know who the culprits are — yet — his lawsuit seeks damages, a permanent injunction and impoundment of all devices that contain copyrighted course material.

Berkovitz teaches at The George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics. He distributed midterm exams to students in April 2021 and final exams a month later. About eight months later, he discovered parts of both tests were posted on the internet. In late February, he requested and received copyright status for both tests.

The lawsuit, obtained by Patch, alleged that the five students wrongly published the exams since they did not receive any license or permission to do so.

"Defendants had access to the Midterm Exam and Final Exam because they obtained access to the Copyrighted Works for testing purposes in their role as students in Berkovitz’s class, and the Midterm Exam and Final Exam were accessible only to students who were then enrolled in Berkovitz’s Business 215 Class in the Spring Semester at Chapman University," the lawsuit said.

The suit said they infringed on Berkovitz’s exclusive right to reproduce, make copies, distribute, or create derivative works by publishing the exams without his permission.

"Defendants knew or should have known that their acts constituted Copyright Infringement," the lawsuit said.

Marc Hankin, an attorney who represents Berkovitz, confirmed to Patch on Wednesday that he plans to subpoena the website to obtain records that will identify the culprits.

Chapman University said it is not involved in the lawsuit and is not a party to the legal action.

"In accordance with the university’s copyright policies, with limited exceptions, professors own the copyrights to their work,"university President Daniele Struppa told Patch in a statement Wednesday. "Professors are free to pursue the removal of their copyright-protected content from websites such as Course Hero, however, we encourage faculty to use internal processes to work with student concerns."

Patch has reached out to Course Hero for comment and will update when we hear back.