Plagiarism and … well, plagiarism

I'm only blogging this 'cause I know I'll forget about it otherwise, and this is actually kind of funny. I don't know whether I mean funny "ha-ha" or funny "umm, ha ha?".

Basic story would be this, assuming it's true, and assuming I digested the order of events properly:

1) Dumb student IMs some comedy-writer-cum-blogger about writing a five-page college paper for her, as she's seen his profile which contains a word that corresponds to her paper topic, which is Hinduism. His profile includes this "hobby": "eating Hindu sculpture."
2) He strings her along outrageously. If she knew anything about Hinduism, for instance, she probably would have been worried when he referred to the god of destruction, Chivas. She doesn't notice and says that money is no object.
3) He agrees to write the paper for $75. She says she can't send money through PayPal because she's not IMing from her own account but her parents' or something.
4) He writes an atrocious paper refers to vindaloo—as a religious term—in the first line. Even if you weren't paying much attention, the line "I made a doody" would grip you, especially as it was on the first page.
5) They dicker. She won't PayPal him. She sends him camera-phone snapshots of bits of the check, from which he gets her real name.
6) He blogs this. His intention here seems to be to out her to her school once she turns the paper in.
7) The Internet goes nuts over this. Everyone has an opinion. Some people apparently make a note of her name and school.
8) Meanwhile, he's trying to get payment. He IMs the original account and gets a confused story about how the owner of it (who writes exactly like the original would-be plagiarizer) has never heard of such a person, doesn't know who must have hacked what she claims is usually her sister's account, and doesn't really care about any of it. Too bad, so sad. B'bye, now!
9) The blogger blogs again. He just meant to scare her and never meant to actually turn her in. It was a joke and he wanted the check as a trophy, not as payment. And, since he posted her name back when his blog was getting 30 hits a day and not thousands, he assumed no one would snitch on her. Well, people are people, and many someones snitched on her. She's been getting calls from everyone from the dean to strangers, she's been called on the carpet, and, yes, she had turned in the paper, I guess without reading it.
10) They IM again—I guess the same address at which no one had been home when it came to that $75 check—and she won't go away without a phone call, and so they talk. She cries, she whines, she admits wrong-doing to him, she wants him to post a retraction, she doesn't want him to email the dean … and it seems she hasn't wholly 'fessed up to the dean. The dean has, however, seen the blog.
11) The blogger ends up talking to the plagiarizer's mom, who's very nice. He feels bad. He tells everyone to stop calling her and replaces all instances of her name (except one in a URL) with a pseudonym. He won't post a retraction.
12) Hundreds of people, including me, post comments. About two-thirds want to see her intestines used in a public art installation. The other third thinks the blogger is a very bad man who should have either just told her to stop being a bad little girl or have simply informed the university without blogging about it.

The blog entries are here:

     Intro
     $75? What $75? Who?
     Followup

I have no idea if any of this is true. I doubt it, actually. I've seen very slim proof that the woman exists. I have trouble believing she could be that stupid, whoever she was. I also note that the blogger hasn't fixed the one URL that includes the woman's real name.

However, as one blog (http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/stepaside/) points out, what's interesting is how angry people get on both sides. Most posters assume the girl will get expelled immediately and two-thirds love this and one-third hates it.

The original blogger said that this would be professorial fodder for years to come. He's right, too.
And the rest …