copying other's work aka teamwork

Today I did again a course for our freshmen. Some started to complain because they got no points for their assignments. Actually we decided that they won't get any points for assignments where we get exact copies from multiple students. Some argued that this is not fair treatment because we adviced them to build learning groups. So I had to explain again what a learning group is and why it is more advisable to _do_ the assignments instead of copying it from someone else. Then there were those people that complained because they suffered from the fact that others copied their work. I answered them that they at least now have learnt something about whom to trust.

I think that most of them now have realized some basic rules on that topic.