Signal Boost: Site scraping fics from AO3 to sell them

[sharpiefan]

Pretty much copied from isis' post here. Posted here because this is a community of fanfic writers who may be affected and may not know about this.

A site called http://www.ebooks-tree.com is scraping fic from AO3 and (apparently?) selling it.

Some information on how to file a DMCA take-down notice. You can also complain to ebooks-tree's webhost, CloudFlare, whose complaints/DMCA page is available here. (Note: You do not need to list your legal name, although Cloudflare do ask for a street address, so some people may not be comfortable with this.)

The AO3 are aware and OTW are discussing what to do.

The best way to discover if your stuff is there is to use their search-box for your pseuds; there is no logical format or layout to how they have arranged works. I have discovered two of my works copied.

I am absolutely furious that works I have put up in good faith as non-profit-making fanworks should be stolen and exploited by other people, and have already followed the guidelines to issue DMCA take-down notices.

Comments

[the_rck]

From what I'm gathering, the whole thing seems to be linked to a credit card information theft scam, too. In order to see the text of anything, one has to sign up by providing a credit card number to these folks: http://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/tzarmedia.com

[dragonbat2006]

They've grabbed other stuff too. Check out Update #2 at http://www.isfanficlegal.com/post/116301992754/update-below-weve-taken-measures-to-make-it. I'm doing what I can as far as filing my DCMA violation, but if they've stolen Harry Potter? And Neil Gaiman's stuff? I think I want popcorn...

[laceblade]

Thanks for linking to this; I've filed a complaint with their webhost.

Mostly I'm pissed that they took my shittiest fic! hahaha.

[samuraiter]

Pardon the language, but ... son of a bitch. They've got five of mine! *looks at necessary info* ... There, submitted abuse report to CloudFlare. Hope that helps budge the boulder a bit, even if it feels a little weird to be a 'ficcer submitting this type of claim.

[silailo]

They've got three of mine, two originals and one fanfic, both one-shots I doubt anyone could give enough of a rip about to actually pay money for. Their author search is a mess and it's a wonder I was able to find my name. I'm not too terribly offended but I'll see about getting the complaint filled out.

What a weird website, though. Who in their right mind would use it?

[linaewen]

Doggone it, they have one of mine, too, a short one shot. Guess I'll be filing a complaint, as well! I heard about this earlier via Ao3 on Twitter, but must have searched wrong because I didn't find anything of mine at the time. It's very upsetting for us who have had works stolen -- in addition, I am an admin of a fanfic archive that is transferring all the works housed there to an archive at Ao3 before shutting down, and this could be a problem for stories that don't have accessible authors who can file complaints. Hopefully, Ao3 will be able to figure out how to combat this without curtailing access to proper users of the site.

[silailo]

I must be doing something wrong. I sent a complaint to CloudFlare and they said this:

We are unable to process your report for the following reason(s):
The domain or subdomain reported does not resolve to a CloudFlare IP address. The domain/subdomain might be using name servers provided by CloudFlare, but that does not indicate where it resolves to. Since the domain or subdomain is not pointing at a CloudFlare IP you will be able to look up where it resolves to and then contact the responsible hosting provider.

I linked to all the stories of mine on Ebooks Tree as well as the page itself (though it says "donotlink" in the address, but maybe that has something to do with it). I'm not sure what to do now with CloudFlare. I will go to Ebooks Tree next.

[rebecca2525]

Who in their right mind would use it?

They've got a lot of popular original authors on there as well. My guess is that the fanfic was just colateral damage and they're hoping to get hits from google when people are searching for "download harry potter books" or something similar, then collecting people's credit card numbers, emails and passwords. It seems to be much more a scamming site than a pirating site.

[samuraiter]

I got that notice, too, but I'm a little hesitant to use the eBooks Tree complaint page because it sets off all manner of red flags in my browser and its related security programs.

[sharpiefan]

Which makes it doubly shady (triply so if you know that several pro writers have had their stuff stolen and put up there, too).

The whole thing is a highly toxic brew.

[sharpiefan]

Mmmm. Care to share that popcorn? This's gonna burn!!

[sharpiefan]

Just shows bots have no taste. Someone on my flist wasn't sure whether to be pleased or insulted that none of her stuff seems to have been pinched at all.

[sharpiefan]

Probably they're hoping that enough people aren't in their right minds? Though people ought to be more aware of scams these days - and this is a pretty blatant scam.

[sharpiefan]

They're scammers; they've hidden their actual ISP pretty well. It's a tangled mess, but as they've stolen actual published works by authors including Neil Gaiman and JK Rowling, I don't think it'll be too long at all before the authorities get involved and pull it.

I hope. Pass the popcorn?

[sharpiefan]

Using the eBooks Tree complaints page probably doesn't go anywhere anyway; they say they're fully DMCA compliant, which is a complete planetload of bullshit or why would they steal so many random works by people who are ((let's face it) unknown outside of fandom - all the stuff I know of apart from the profic that's been stolen was put up under various fannish pseuds. And people who know who these people are and what they write will know where they can find those works without paying for the privilege of reading them.

[the_rck]

Well, I haven't yet filed a complaint, and the stories they took from me seem to be gone now. I'm hoping that they've just generally taken down all the stuff from AO3.

Though apparently they hit other archives, too, and some private websites.

[the_rck]

There's more about who really hosts them here: http://www.isfanficlegal.com/post/116383921254/ebookstree-4-14-15/mobile

[the_rck]

We've posted two link round ups on this at metanews, one yesterday and one today.

I've also started seeing reports that they're taking down people's stuff in response to take down demands, and the four of my stories that were there aren't any more (I hadn't yet gotten to filing a take down notice).

Some of the pro authors whose stuff is there have been sending their publishers after the site, too. (You can see a little about that here: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/5307340.html

[lilly_c]

Holy crap! This is so not good at all. :(

I haven't been able to check if anything of mine was taken and hosted there because my browser instantly blocked the link to it and I may try the DCMA route anyway just in case they have.

[lilly_c]

There's an update on the current situation here: http://www.isfanficlegal.com/post/116383921254/ebookstree-4-14-15

[linaewen]

Aha! My story doesn't show up in the search anymore, so that is at least promising. I hadn't gotten around to filing a complaint yet either. I'll keep my eye on this, though -- thanks for all the updates!