Theft from Archive Of Our Own

[thewayne]

One of the largest fanfic web sites was plundered. My wife has been complaining that they've been a bit unstable of late, turns out that someone had created a commercial web site and was stealing fanfic from AO3 and posting it on theirs. Apparently the site was a 'give use your credit card and it's an all you can eat buffet'.

And seven stories of my wife's are among what was plundered.

I'm sure AO3 could sue for stolen content and for causing server problems, but I'm sure it won't happen.

My wife's latest addiction is Supernatural, I think there's 11 or 12 seasons available, she's bought them all save one.

Comments

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to hear of the theft of your wife's work. It probably would be too expensive and onerous to sue, and it's too likely it would end up in front of judges who would think the fanfiction itself is a theft of the work of the original creators. I don't think fanfiction violates anyone's rights, but too many others do.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

My wife doesn't mind her stories being posted on other sites as long as they're attributed and free, and neither of these conditions were met. She sent a take-down request to the site, we'll see if they comply. A LOT of people on AO3 are very unhappy with this, so I would imagine a lot of people are sending such notices.

The reaction of professional authors to fanfic is interesting. Some hate it, lots accept it, I know of at least one who writes it under a pseudonym that everyone knows who it is: she was writing fanfic before she was professionally published, and has continued. I think the advantage of fanfic is that if people like your work well enough to write fic for it, they're also likely to be proselytizing for it, which leads to sales. I know of authors who maintain a strict discipline of not reading fanfic for their books because of the risk of someone claiming that they stole an idea. It doesn't make them immune to such claims, but it helps.

Then again, I know an author who is opposed to used sales and libraries carrying his books because those are lost sales as far as he's concerned.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I would be delighted if someone wrote fanfic based on my books. (I can't say with certainty that no one has, because I've never gone looking for it, but I have no reason to believe there are any stories out there.) It's a huge compliment, no matter what they do with it, and it is a way to spread knowledge of the original material. I started watching a tv show because a fanfic writer I liked wrote a story based on that show, I liked what she did, I watched the show, and I liked the show. And bought the DVD.

I would never read any fanfic based on my books, though. Not just because I might be accused of stealing ideas, which I know has happened, but because some fanfic writers write incredibly convincing alternative interpretations of characters and events, and that might have too great an impact on my own views. Also, it would feel weird.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

It might well be practical to at least shut them down with a DMCA notice - that's a reasonably lightweight and affordable action, as far as legal remedies go.

The roomie's been quite into Supernatural, but I don't tend to really watch all that much TV, with a few exceptions - I'll watch MasterChef within a couple days of airing, and MLP within a week or so. Catching up, it's basically Orange is the New Black, and Extant.

[silveradept]

If it is a tool they want to use, the DMCA takedown procedure would likely work in this case. There are also published author works available from that site, and so the big lawyers may already be coming out to play to get the place shut down.