History
Since the 1980s, several programmers have created plagiarism detection software in response to their student's flagrant cheating. The difficulty for creating such software lies in programming an accurate detection algorithm that spans all text available on the internet. A second difficulty lies in creating a user-friendly system that educators and students can use with ease.
Is such software effective?
Yes. A study in 2001 conducted at the Univeristy of Illinois-Urbana found plagiarism to be reduced if the use of plagiarism detection software was an explicit consequence, as compared to just warning students to not plagairize.
One conclusion that the researchers have come to is that blatant plagiarism is not as common as "casual" plagiarism. Blatant plagiarism is using all or part of a source without proper citation. Students who use "casual" plagiarism use most of the text in a source but poorly cite them.
