Hi guys

I'm doing my best to spread the word that this site AO3.life has scraped lots of fics from AO3 and is selling them for profit.

I removed the site link for ao3.life as it's gone now!

I have found at least 5 of mine there and so have my friends.

What can we do to stop them, I don't know? They say we can request our fics to be taken down but I think that would compromise our anonymity.

Update: I found this where someone reported the site and got a reply, so hopefully it is helpful: https://www.threads.com/@k.kinley24/post/DfPo6h2Gqsh/media?xmt=AQG0CjOMyS8v8V0npLV2WEm5QcRdhQLLdD22v4z8BXF-ECKorQjw1UbF_h4GqArnC9oB2IA

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[–] 13 points 1 week ago (1 child)

I think you may be able to let the copyright holders know that somebody is trying to make a profit

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  • [–] 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    .life

    The address is managed by EuroDNS and the hosting seems to be under Starship.net.

    Get in touch with both (focus on EuroDNS tho) and have them shut the site down or at least limit its access. Also file whichever subpoenas can be made without compromising your identity for identifying the uploaders or the hosting's client for copyright violation.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Ah thanks, how did you find that out? I've told AO3 and I'll tell those others. No idea how to file subpoenas etc.

    I'm hoping everyone involved will send emails and it won't just be me. Spread the word, share it on Tumblr, wherever!

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    To find out that information I raised a general WHOIS query about ao3.life (via any sanctioned online WHOIS tool). The response which I posted to r/ao3 was quite trimmed down but contained the nameservers, which point to Starship. That plus a general search on DDG to learn who administers *.life took me to EuroDNS's page.

    From there it was just carefully checking the corporate webpages for their forms on abuse report / copyright violation report.

    That said, AO3 Legal team notified they are already aware of the issue. But they are volunteers currently being run over by the downtime and security attack, so I'd guess we should do our part to help by, say, mass-reporting the site. Any legal report can be of help, such as a DMCA takedown (if you fulfill the requirements to raise one), a trademark violation report, an abuse report, a C&D, etc.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Thats pretty fucked up. You might want a lawyer, honestly. I can't think of many other ways to pursue this while maintaining your anonymity.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago

    They'd better be careful what they grab.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago

    Probably copyright infringement depending on the license. Get a lawyer to send them a nice message (or just threaten them that you'll get a lawyer) and that's that.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 child)

    Why link to the bad site like that? And yeah there are a bunch of reddit threads about this. People are filing reports with the relevant ISPs and the French authorities. AO3s legal team is apparently trying to get the bad site stop using AO3 trademarks, but can't do anything about the copying itself.

    https://old.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1xm2tpp/situation_ao3life/

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  • [–] 0 points 1 week ago