Message from Mr Peter Sidorko, University Librarian
15 March 2017
 
Dear Graduates,

As a key knowledge transfer/exchange initiative, the University has an open access policy that graduates' theses can be freely downloaded from the HKU Scholars Hub for non-commercial use only. If anyone is downloading a thesis, he/she has to comply with the terms and conditions of the licensing of the Creative Commons-Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC), which means any sale of theses/books without due permission is prohibited.
The University is aware that a number of graduates’ theses are being sold on a number of websites, such as:

•  Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Open+Dissertation+Press
•  Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/publishers/Open-Dissertation-Press
•  Fishpond - http://www.fishpond.com.au/p/Open+Dissertation+Press
•  AbeBooks - https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?pn=Open+Dissertation+Press&sts=t
•  It1me - http://www.it1me.com/product?nd=605&sv=Yasa&id=1361376635/153-1966018-5081259
•  Chapters Indigo - https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/search/?keywords=BiblioLabs%2C%20LLC

The University takes the matter seriously. Intellectual property rights must be respected and protected. The University is working together with authors of the theses to lodge their complaints to the relevant website hosts to ensure rectification measures are taken, in particular unauthorized publication and sale should be stopped.
In this connection, the University would also like to draw your attention to the above situation so that you can take the following steps:

(a) Review whether your thesis is being sold without due permission;
(b) Consider filing a complaint and submitting a review to the website hosts according to their procedures (noting that website hosts will only deal with complaints from copyright owners).

The University will monitor the situation, in particular whether rectification measures will be taken by the parties concerned. If necessary, further actions may need to be taken.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Sidorko
University Librarian
The University of Hong Kong