A Chinese court barred a Beijing-based Internet site from selling materials such as questions from the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), bolstering efforts by business schools to combat cheating by applicants.

Beijing Passion Consultancy Ltd, a Web-based test-preparation site, was ordered to stop using the materials, to apologize in a national newspaper, to post a warning about cheating and pay 520,000 yuan to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the McLean, Virginia-based group said in a statement.

Thirty-two GMAT scores from students in China were revoked this year, and 24 Chinese test takers were blocked from taking the exam again for five years, said David A. Wilson, president of GMAC.

The Chinese court ruling "will scare some people from cheating in the short term, now that they realize they could be affected by this and have their GMAT score canceled," said Donald McCabe, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

"But I worry that students, if they want to cheat, will find another way around it if they are so anxious to do so," McCabe added.

GMAC, an association of graduate management schools, owns and administers the GMAT standardized admission test available to students in nearly 100 countries and required by more than 4,700 business school programs.

The group is also attempting to curtail cheating with methods such as Web scanning software.

GMAC has increased security at testing centers, including palm-vein readers that capture each test takers' imprints, Wilson said in an interview.

Copyright Actions

The council won a $2.3 million copyright infringement judgment last year that helped lead to the closing of Scoretop.com, an Aurora, Ohio-based Web site allowing students to look at live exam questions. Test scores were wiped out for 84 people who paid the website.

About 10 administrative complaints have been filed in China against websites for unauthorized use of books, questions and test materials, said Robert Burgoyne, an attorney with Fulbright & Jaworski in Washington who represents the business school group.

The Nov 23 decision is the first ruling involving test-preparation materials distributed only through the Web, he said.

"This is certainly one of the first cases involving Internet-based infringement in China, and I think that's really its principal significance," Burgoyne said.

"The Chinese courts, like the US courts, are going to have to come to terms with the challenges posed by the Internet in terms of protecting intellectual property rights," Burgoyne said.

Zhou Junwu, a lawyer representing Beijing Passion Consultancy Ltd, couldn't be reached for comment.

No students were sanctioned in the Beijing Passion case, because the council wasn't able to obtain the names of those who used the website, the group said in its statement.

Wilson said the case and heightened security methods tell students: "When you take the GMAT, you are going to be observed, palm veined, and scanned. It will be the fairest test and it will not be corrupted."

Bloomberg

(Source: China Daily)