Wichita State’s Dean of University Libraries Brent Mai has been accused of copyright infringement, false endorsement and unfair competition for using the work of researcher Margreatha Hein, the proprietor of a company documenting the history of a group of German immigrants.
Both Mai and Hein have done research centered on the genealogy, culture and origins of Volga Germans, an ethnic group of German migrants who settled along Russia’s Volga River and who have since been scattered across the globe.
The lawsuit filed with the state of Kansas alleges that Mai has and continues to regularly publish research belonging to Hein and other researchers, “often verbatim, sometimes paraphrased, and always without proper attribution as to source.” This research includes, according to Hein’s attorneys, copyrighted photos and literary works including names, dates and city and settlement names.
Mai, who was named Wichita State’s dean of University Libraries in 2023, asserts that the information he used, often with credit to Hein, is discoverable information and not subject to copyright.
“Your name, your birthday, your birthplace … The name of the town you were born in — these are facts,” Mai said in an interview with The Sunflower. “ … And I’m sorry, that’s not copyrightable. It never has been.”
Research interest
Mai said he’s been researching the history of Volga Germans his entire life. Since discovering his Volga German ancestry at a family reunion as a child, he’s devoted time and effort to tracking the socioeconomic movement patterns of the population.
Mai operated a different website to house Volga German research at each university where he was employed. The websites, with the exception of his current website volgagermaninstitute.org, were registered under an educational institution (.edu) domain name, affiliating it with the respective universities. In the counterclaim, Mai denies that any of his websites were published under the “auspices” of the universities where he was employed.
“So with the institution that I was at, every time I would change jobs, then I had to move the database to a new place,” Mai said. “When I came here (to WSU), I set it up as a .org … If I retire, then I don’t worry that the university will decide to shut it off
According to the suit, Mai’s current website first appeared under the Wichita State logo, name and address. The lawsuit purports that WSU’s branding was removed after Hein, in December of 2023, sent a letter to WSU’s General Counsel Stacia Boden and then-Provost Shirley Lefever notifying them of examples of plagiarism and copyright infringement.
Hein’s letter requested that WSU “not host, promote or otherwise support” the Volga German Institute until Mai removed copied or plagiarism material, added proper citations and attributions, eliminate reference to Hein as a contributor where permission to use material wasn’t given, and to correct the name of a location that was misstated “when he copied my research.” A similar letter was sent to the University of North Florida, where Mai was previously employed as the dean of the Thomas G. Carpenter Library.
Hein’s attorney, Todd Todesco, said Wichita State responded by asking Mai to remove mention of the university from the website.
“I think WSU’s response was, ‘Hey, that’s personal, that’s entirely his. We’re not involved in that,’” Todesco said. “But we’ve told them to remove WSU insignia from that page to show that there’s no affiliation.”
The Sunflower reached out to Lainie Mazzullo-Hart, the director of strategic communications, asking for WSU’s perspective and involvement in removing WSU branding from Mai’s website. The Sunflower did not receive a response.
In response to Hein’s letters to WSU and UNF, Mai has filed a counterclaim of defamation against Hein.
“That’s just because she’s trying to go after me and my job. And I’m like, ‘That’s not acceptable. You shouldn’t be able to get away with that sort of thing,” Mai said.
The lawsuit
According to Hein’s attorney, Catherine Simmons-Gill, Hein first became aware of the extent of Mai’s use of her research in November 2023, shortly after Mai was named dean of University Libraries at WSU.
“She was aware that there were a few things here and there, sure, but she, for the first time, looked up things on his website by her own name, and there were something like 385 references to her name,” Simmons-Gill said.
She also became aware of copied photos, eight of which have since been registered for copyright. Simmons-Gill said Mai published the photos in 2017, where they remained on his website until they were removed sometime in January or February 2024, shortly after Hein filed for copyright registration.
“(But) he has never done anything to change, give credit for, (or) cite the textual information,” Simmons-Gill said.
In dozens of his website entries containing textual information from Hein, Mai lists her as a contributor. Hein’s lawyers said this insinuates that Hein works for Mai or gave him permission to use her work, both of which are untrue.
“He cites the sources that she cites on her website, and then he just lists her as a researcher or contributor,” Todesco said. “Because what would happen if he linked to the actual source where he got the information? It would send people to her site, and he does not do anything to send people to her site. He — in our opinion — he makes it look like she works for him.”
Simmons-Gill and Todesco said that through his representation, Mai appears to be “the apex of research in this field,” enabling Mai to financially benefit from the use of Hein’s information. Todesco also asserts that Mai’s website “was a huge basis for him obtaining employment at Wichita State.”
“People like (Hein) keep pushing him up, as he’s got it set up, which then allows him to capitalize on his expertise and generate income from his nonacademic pursuits,” Todesco said.
According to his cover letter for the dean of University Libraries position, Mai speaks internationally as an expert in Volga German history and has fundraised over $2 million for the Center for Volga German Studies. Additionally, he leads tours in Germany, visiting the villages of Volga Germans. According to the Volga German Tours website, Mai is scheduled for a tour this June.
The Sunflower asked Mazzullo-Hart how significant Mai’s Volga German work was in his hiring. The Sunflower did not receive a response.
In the counterclaim, Mai denies that his website competes with any other websites. The information offered and available on both Mai’s and Hein’s websites is offered without cost and does not feature ads, according to the counterclaim, eliminating the possibility of competition between the websites.
According to Hein’s attorneys, there is a disagreement as to whether Hein gave Mai verbal permission to use her information.
“(Mai) has admitted that there is no written permission. He’s admitted that. So the issue is, did (Hein) ever give him oral permission? And she says, ‘No,’” Simmons-Gill said.
Simmons-Gill asserts that in 2020, Hein sent Mai a text, saying, “If you ever think you had permission to copy any of my textual materials, you don’t.”
But Mai said that regardless, the information in question is not copyrightable.
“Anyone could discover it; you, me. So therefore, it’s not copyrightable because it could be discoverable by all of us,” Mai said. “… I don’t deny that I copied her information. What I deny is that that’s illegal.”
Mai compared the relationship between Hein and the data on her website to that of a scientist who has discovered a new element.
“Scientists will work their entire careers, their entire lives, to discover a new element on the periodic table,” Mai said. “Maybe they get their name on it, but the element doesn’t belong to them because it was discoverable, no matter how difficult it is.”
But the considerable lengths Hein went to to obtain and verify the information used on Mai’s website and the conclusions she’s made as a result of that research, her attorneys said, also make it grounds for a proper subject matter of copyright.
“She goes to multiple different sources, and she has to use judgment to select the sources,” Simmons-Gill said. “… She translates from this kind of unique old German. She goes to birth records, settlement records, baptismal records, marriage documents. These might all be in different places, and yet, she pulls a series of facts out of multiple different records, which she translates and puts them all together based on then probably confirming them from other records.”
Mai acknowledged that while the information was laborious to obtain and corroborate, that doesn’t make it Hein’s.
“She says, ‘I worked really hard to find this stuff.’ And I was like, ‘It’s your gift to humanity; it doesn’t belong to you,’” Mai said.
What comes next
The suit is ongoing, with the most recent activity occurring on March 3. Mai said he’s confident the suit against him has no merit.
“She has little or no understanding of how copyright really works,” Mai said. “ … The law is on my side. We’re (Mai and his attorney) lost for what she thinks is going to happen here.”
Conversely, while Simmons-Gill and Todesco said they would love for Mai to settle, they’re certain the final decision will rule in Hein’s favor.
“He has built his website on a lot of other people’s work, and he thinks, for some reason, because nobody has put his feet to the fire, that this is okay,” Simmons-Gill said.
As of July 2024, a trial is designated to take place in Wichita, with no set date yet. Until then, Mai said he’ll continue to do the work that he does despite the lawsuit’s claims.
“I continue to work, continue to do the research that I do, speak, do all that sort of stuff. It’s what I do. I don’t think that somebody like this should be allowed to stifle that sort of work that goes on,” Mai said. “ … (But) I’d rather spend my time on that, on supporting student research, faculty research that’s going on here, putting my time and energy into other things.”
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