The days of buying term papers online may be coming to an end, thanks to the new Plagiarism-Finder. With Plagiarism-Finder, any Windows-based PC with Internet access can
be used to check files in a variety of formats, including Microsoft? Word (.doc), Adobe? Acrobat? (.PDF), plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), and HTML, for exact phrase matching on the Web. Users choose the level of scanning they want to perform - a random sampling, a normal scan, a detailed examination, or a user-defined interval - and let Plagiarism-Finder do the rest. Scan times depend on the user's Internet connection and level of examination but typically last from two to 40 minutes.

Upon completing the scan, Plagiarism-Finder highlights suspect passages and includes links to matching Web pages. A detailed report gives the user a comprehensive source list and the percentage of text copied from each source, as well as the document's overall percentage
of copied test. If the program shows a large number of concurrent sources plagiarism is likely.

Plagiarism-Finder can also be used in reverse, to help published authors and journalists make sure their copyrighted words are not being used online without their permission.