Seriously, in over half of my law school classes so far, I have sat next to someone who Gchats relentlessly and then looks over at my computer to copy my notes VERBATIM. Its really getting in my head. This happen to anyone else?

They'll get theirs when they can't gchat for most of the final and then copy your answers.

I guess. But I take good notes. If they just study them later they will probably only benefit from them slightly less than I do.

type in smaller font

ALT+TAB to goatse when they're copying.

That's not a bad idea.

Write in yellow or orange during class.

You can buy a clip-on screen thingy that prevents people from viewing your monitor at an angle. I see them on the train a lot.

edit: a la the post above, submitted as I was writing my reply.

Come on guys, the OP has got to act ruthlessly. For example, type in mistakes and such. Put in a 'not' here or there. Then go back and change it and the copier won't notice. Do what it takes!

Dude. Great idea. Very subtle. I think I should do that, and then berate them in larger font.

TITCR?

Is this a constant thing, or is someone just double-checking a sentence?

I've had people glance over if they missed a point (usually because the prof was going so fast rather than because they were on gchat), and it's never bothered me. But I would probably be upset if it was constant.

The privacy screen thing would work well or ghosting the print while they are looking, but you could just call them on it. They're being rude, why not point it out?

Of course, your comfort level with that depends on your personality.

If you can type without watching the screen, and feel confident with your accuracy, you could just type in white. After class, select all and change font color to black.

TITCR, plus, now I know that people outside of my boyfriend and his college friends know that video

LOL. The OP's screen name is also a bit ironic!

Haha. Yes, its obviously absurd to be annoyed by something such as this. I should just post my class notes on the school bulletin board according to you, because its not at all problematic for others to benefit from my hard work while putting none in themselves!

Also, the problem is that the people who do it are kind of my friends (although this certainly weakens my desire to be their friend), so it's a bit of an awkward situation. I guess they don't think there is anything wrong with it? I am very happy to send people notes when they miss class, and I could care less if people glance at my screen to see what them miss if they momentarily zone out. But I do care when someone never pays attention in class at all, and then plagiarizes my notes.

+1 on this

She is really good at being aware of when I type something, and because I do nothing in class but listen and take notes, she knows everything I do type is part of my notes. But to be honest, how much these people benefit from my notes is beside the point as far as I'm concerned. It's the principal of the thing. I would not do this. Pay attention and take your own damn notes.

As far as what "kind of being friends" is, I don't really think that really warrants a response. Are you trying to say every person you know from law school is either completely your friend or not at all? Think about it and I'm sure you can figure out what my expression means.

And yes, this is not technically plagiarism, but it is akin to it. No need to take everything so literally.

i do this all the fucking time, though i'm not g-chatting i just fail to catch what the prof is saying sometimes. seriously who cares.

It helps keep you out trouble when your non-law-school friends send you dirty emails. I swear I've opened 20 porn emails in the library.

OP needs to chill the hell out.

TITCR

I can understand being annoyed at that. Its one thing if youre listening and miss something, its another if you just copy somebody else's notes. I doubt they will benefit that greatly from it if theyre not paying attention, but it would still be annoying.

I'm not in law school yet, but my last semester of undergrad I was taking philosophy of science, which killed people at every test. I got pretty good at learning how to study for the test and would re-read ALL the material and take notes on it, then answer all the questions on the review sheet and send copies of it to people in the class that I knew were putting their own work in. I dont mind helping people out like that. But if someone didnt do crap, I wouldnt help them.

You can actually buy a "shield" for your laptop, where only the person that's sitting directly in front of the monitor can see what's going on.