Cyber slander and libel attacks using material and info from creative writing theses

[Read, Max]

Hi all,

 

All theses at UBC are fully open access except for the Master of Fine Arts and Master of Music creative arts theses. These are in a separate collection accessible by campus-wide login (CWL) only. Students, faculty, staff, and other select individuals use a CWL for accessing university sites.

 

A former creative arts student has gone into the Creative Arts collection using their CWL, and is using material from theses there to post attacks on the Creative Writing program and individuals (faculty members) in it. This is done via a blog, and by videos on Instagram and TikTok that film pages of a thesis with the attacker’s underlining and notes.

 

Obviously this violates many regulations, copyright not being the least of them. In practical terms, has anyone dealt with anything like this before? What did you do? Cancel access for the attacking individual? Remove access for all for a limited period of time? Active the legal team?

 

I’m in the grad school, and we’re waiting for the Library to absorb what’s going on and take some action, but I’m interested to know if/how others have dealt with this.

 

Thanks!

 

m

 

Max Read 
Associate Director, Student Academic Services
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies | Office of the Dean and Vice-Provost
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus
170-6371 Crescent Road | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z2 Canada
Phone 604 822 0283
max....@ubc.ca | http://www.grad.ubc.ca

 

[Baer,Helen]

Hi Max,

 

I’m so sorry to hear that this has happened to you. I would activate your legal team immediately.

 

Best,

 

Helen

 

Helen Baer (she/her)

Digital Projects Librarian

Assistant Professor

Morgan Library

1201 Center Avenue Mall

Colorado State University

Fort Collins, CO 80523-1019

Phone: 970-491-5934

 

From: Read, Max <max....@ubc.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 1:17 PM
To: 'e...@ndltd.org' <e...@ndltd.org>
Subject: [etd] Cyber slander and libel attacks using material and info from creative writing theses

 

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[Jody Bailey]

I agree with Helen on both points -- I'm sorry this is happening to you, and I would definitely get your general counsel's office involved. One thing that's confusing to me is that you say this person is a "former creative arts student." Does this mean that this person is an alumnus/a or is no longer enrolled at your institution? If so, why would they still have a login? If this person is still a UBC student, I would get the dean of students office involved, too. These actions would constitute serious academic misconduct on my campus.

I hope everything can be resolved with a minimum of disruption to your repository!

Best,

Jody Bailey, MA, MLIS (she, her, hers) 

Head, Scholarly Communications Office 

Emory University Libraries

jody....@emory.edu

[Read, Max]

Hi Jody,

 

Thanks for the advice. At UBC, alumni retain their campus-wide login and can access certain campus services, including the Creative Arts collection of ETDs. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it!) this person is no longer a student so there’s no avenue that way for dealing with them.

 

Interesting times….

 

m

 

Max Read 
Associate Director, Student Academic Services
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies | Office of the Dean and Vice-Provost
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus
170-6371 Crescent Road | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z2 Canada
Phone 604 822 0283
max....@ubc.ca | http://www.grad.ubc.ca

 

From: Jody Bailey <jody....@emory.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2023 3:39 PM
To: ETD <e...@ndltd.org>
Cc: Baer,Helen <Helen...@colostate.edu>; Read, Max <max....@ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: Cyber slander and libel attacks using material and info from creative writing theses

 

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