Site ebooks-tree.com "Scraping" Fanfic Stories

[dawn_felagund]

Apologies for those who have seen this already, but this is important, and I want to make sure all of our members are reached, as many are affected. The website ebooks-tree.com has been "scraping" fanfics from AO3, UrBookLibrary, and Wattpad to host as mobi and PDF downloads on their site. This has been done without the authors' permission, and a lot of people are understandably upset at what amounts to the theft of their work. AO3 has stepped up and responded quickly to take measures to make it harder for this site to continue to do this on AO3, but several Tolkien fandom authors have had their work stolen. The AO3 Tumblr has information on how to send a DMCA takedown notice on your behalf to have your work removed from the site, if you find it there and wish to have it removed. AO3 notes that the ebooks-tree.com DMCA page erroneously claims that you have to have a lawyer do this for you; this is not correct.This is your work, and you can advocate on your behalf to have it removed, should you wish to do so.

Please see this post for more information:

http://silmarillionwritersguild.tumblr.com/post/116335016472/fyeahcopyright-weve-been-getting-pings-and-s

And please help spread the word to groups and fans who have not been informed of this already.

Comments

[silver_trails]

I tried to download one of mine, just to see what happened, and there was a message about not available in certain countries. They asked a credit card number to a friend who lives in USA. If Amazon and Marriot take my credit cards in USA, why not them? So they are probably harvesting only some credit card's info.

[dawn_felagund]

I don't know the ins and outs of international commerce, but there should be no need for a credit card to read a work that is available for free. That's troubling, and if they are selling fanfic ebooks, the fanfic authors and AO3 will be the least of their worries!

[silver_trails]

If you earn enough, you have a good card, and it's valid everywhere.

But as you say that's not the problem. Not at all.

[silver_trails]

And now my fics are gone from the site, along with the fics of other people who also filed a complaint.

[dawn_felagund]

Good! I'm glad the response was not only real but quick.

ETA ... and I just checked, and even that weird DawnFelagund.pdf file is gone, so maybe they took some kind of mass action against all files imported from AO3. Which would be ideal, of course, since no amount of signal-boosting will reach everyone.

[silver_trails]

(nodding) Apparently they have received enough angry mail to realize that they cannot get away with this. Surely they were planning to download the fics you have on AO3 in the future.