South Korean cram school tutors deny wrongdoing in SAT leak case - Reuters

thousands of tables are seen inside a hall at Asia-World Expo close Hong Kong Airport in Hong Kong, China October 2, 2015, sooner or later earlier than SAT examinations to be taken place. Reuters/Bobby Yip

Tutors at South Korean look at various instruction schools denied criminal wrongdoing all over a court docket hearing on Monday involving leaked counsel that ended in the cancellation of the U.S. SAT school entrance exam in South Korea in 2013.

nine of 22 defendants, including tutors and house owners of deepest "examine-prep" schools, regarded in a Seoul court for his or her first hearing, charged with illegally obtaining SAT faculty entrance exam check papers and offering them to scholars.

Their lawyers have pointed out their consumers don't seem to be responsible of copyright infringement.

The trial all started after the check's administrator, the tutorial testing carrier (ETS), provided documents to the courtroom in March following Reuters inquiries to the business about what South Korean authorities pointed out turned into an absence of cooperation.

Defence attorneys said on Monday their consumers had used publicly accessible exams for his or her prep courses and their moves did not constitute copyright infringement because that they had no intention of making a profit or violating reasonable use guidelines.

"without any intent to infringe copyright, some substances were copied and used when students did not have their textbooks. It isn't considered as income-making," Oh Seung-hyun, a legal professional representing five of the defendants, told the court docket.

another defendant, charged with obstruction of the examine administrator's enterprise via hiring people to take SAT tests to memorize questions, didn't reconstruct and distribute what his half-timers learned, Oh stated.

cheating at overseas SAT testing sites has been a problem for years.

In may 2013, the U.S. faculty Board, which owns the SAT, canceled the sitting of the exam in South Korea on account of leaked questions. It became the first time the firm scrapped an SAT sitting across a whole country.

That got here after South Korean authorities alleged that Korean cram faculties had illegally got SAT verify papers.

youngsters, South Korean authorities mentioned their investigation had been hobbled by means of an absence of assist from the ETS.

In September 2014, South Korea's highest courtroom requested files from ETS. Prosecutors wanted assistance to investigate that materials seized from the cram schools, referred to as hagwons, were genuine SAT checks.

ultimate September, a 12 months after the request, an authentic with the Seoul critical District court advised Reuters that ETS had yet to respond.

In December, Reuters requested ETS examine-security head Ray Nicosia about the count number. He observed ETS turned into continuing to work with South Korean authorities. After that interview, South Korean authorities talked about ETS promised to send the requested files via the conclusion of 2015.

The trial started after ETS provided the documents in March.

(modifying by Tony Munroe and Paul Tait)