An Oxford don, Dr Peter Millican, has created a computer application that he feels can detect plagiarism. Mr. Chris Cannon, an unbiased Republican congressman from Utah with a strong interest in cybernetics, has apparently been on a crusade to prove that the computer can detect plagiarism. He decided to test Dr. Millican's software. By chance he happened to have electronic copies of a book by someone named Obama and another by a Mr. Ayers which he thought would be a suitable test for Dr. Millican.
Now you have to know that Mr. Cannon is shy and also has trouble speaking the language used in England. So, he asked his brother-in-law, Robert Fox, an English-speaking California businessman, to contact Dr. Millican to determine whether the good doctor would wish to test his computer program on the two books Mr. Cannon happened to have. If Dr. Millicam agreed, then the Americans would pay him $10,000.
Being a smart person, the good doctor made a fast pass through the two books to judge whether they were likely candidates for his software. He found that they did not appear to be but he was willing to take the Americans $10,000 if they wished him to conduct a full test provided, however, that the results would be made public. Cannon declined the offer because, on further reflection, he was not interested in making an issue of Obama’s memoir “even if it were scientifically proven” to be someone else’s work.
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