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To that end, I would be confident that posting segments of a paper in an academic forum for purposes of soliciting help in confirming originality (or not) is fair use. The contrary position would be truly silly.
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<p>That is my general impression, and that is why I posted the reply to the earlier post. I am well aware, although perhaps this was news to other participants, that the creator of a work has copyright as soon as the work is created. But of course a student who copied-and-pasted other people's works has no copyright in the collage, and who else would complain about having his work checked by his professor?</p>