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  • (-1) Whether the action was unethical or illegal is relevant, and the OP must ultimately use her own judgment and hence her own beliefs. Authors' consent for a publication is a basic ethical norm of academic publishing, regardless of what the journal says (or omits saying because it's taken to be obvious). Commented Feb 24, 2025 at 17:03
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    @Kodiologist Illegal is not a judgement call, and certainly not one that the OP can "believe" to make it true. Ethics is, by your own admission, also not a judgement call. Ethics is based on asking whether a set of conventions that you call norms, were or were not followed. One can ascribe various reasons behind the actions taken. Some are illegal by rules and unethical by norms. Some are not illegal and are primarily due to bad judgement (e.g. not knowing better). In summary, your digression into supporting belief systems for laws and ethics make them a shifting sand of relativism. Commented Feb 24, 2025 at 18:49
  • I agree it's not a judgment call. Still, one must use one's own judgment. To reply to someone who says "I think it is highly unethical and a crime" with "What you think is unethical or illegal is immaterial" is not only offensively condescending; it misrepresents how belief and judgment work. To say that people do and must act on their own beliefs is realism, not relativism. Our belief about a claim doesn't make it true; it represents our knowledge about whether it's true. Commented Feb 25, 2025 at 13:13
  • Regarding the copyright question: it is important for the OP to understand that the substance of their research is not subject to copyright. The words and figures of their thesis are, but it's unclear whether the supervisor has used any of those. And if the thesis counts as a submission in a course then it would not be too surprising for the university to have retained at least some rights in it. Commented Feb 25, 2025 at 13:40
  • @Kodiologist I appreciate the reasoned request to moderate my tone and have done so. I have removed all bold and emphasis, rephrased my response at the opening, and moved part of the first to the second response. I was not intending dismissiveness toward the OP's right to believe in something. Regard especially that the full context to my original statement was "... is immaterial to a productive next step". The OP acts on their beliefs ... realism. The OP holds that their beliefs are valid grounds to punish their advisor ... relativism. Commented Feb 25, 2025 at 14:38