I was disturbed by Emma Gross’ "Clashing values over what is cheating" (Opinion, Jan. 28) with her assertion that adults born after 1982 are unaware of "abstract moral attitudes and customs" (like lying, cheating and acting on principle!) and her implication that the rest of us should adapt to that fact.

The Internet poses new challenges regarding intellectual property and new policies are required for new technologies. But it’s certainly no harder to attribute an Internet source than any other.

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And it’s more important to do so, in order to separate credible information from the dreck on the Web. Often when an Internet "fact" is traced to its source, it began as outrageous satire or the ravings of some conspiracy theorist.

The professor who accepts plagiarism helps create employees who claim credit for a colleague’s idea and steal a patent or database.

The professor who trashes deadlines and guidelines helps create employees who can’t cope with workplace policies or outcomes but feel entitled to raises and promotions.

I challenge Gross’ assertion that bedrock morality, like honesty, is an irrelevant product of the 19th century rather than an inscription writ deep in human nature across diverse cultures, philosophies and millennia.

Chriss Sharer

Murray