Publisher blames Hong Kong University for copyright licensing ‘debacle’ amid recall
Creative Media Partners chief executive says the school never had the right to allow commercial distribution
An online publisher of University of Hong Kong theses has instructed all vendors to remove the material from their stores after what he describes as a licensing “debacle” caused by the school.
Jason Youmans, chief executive of Creative Media Partners LLC, on Tuesday said his company had just learned of the university’s intellectual property rights policy, which stipulates that all current and former students shall retain copyright of their thesis.
The policy also states that a royalty-free worldwide licence, which must be granted by the students, only allows circulation for non-commercial purposes.
He said this meant that the university would not have had the right to grant any publisher a commercial licence, which his firm had received.
“We are immediately removing from sale all the HKU dissertations we published through Open Dissertation Press with all retailers and distributors where they were being sold,” he said.