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Apps mirroring AO3 content

An explanation and what you can do

Many of you have already heard of what’s happening (see this post). Two app developers, Woodsign and Sergey Pekar/Simple Soft Alliance have created apps that lift content from AO3 (some of it is hand-selected, as with Woodsign’s case) and made it available to people who download the app. The developers then make a profit from their apps through in-app purchases (ads) and fees to access more content.

Woodsign is the worst offender as it’s not only selecting the most popular fics from fandoms, but prompting app users to pay a fee to view more content. This goes against everything fanfiction authors stand for, and it needs to be shut down immediately.

SSA/Sergey Pekar is simply mirroring publicly available stories from AO3. Illegal? Not exactly. Unethical? Yes.

What You Can Do

Emailing AO3 about this issue will only get you the same email response. Basically, they are not responsible for maintaining or securing the content posted on their site. Individual action on the part of the author is required.

Method #1: Edit all of your fics to only be shown to registered users. Go private, basically. It’s a pain in the ass for those of us who have lots of fics to change, and non-Archive users will be SOL from now on, but this will instantly remove your content from the mirror app. Woodsign is more insidious and might require the method below.

Method #2: Download the apps and then report the developers (more info on how to do that in this post), or try contacting the developers and request they remove your content. I’ve heard reporting is a tricky process with Apple, lots of hoops to jump through, but it’s possible. If anyone has successfully reported these apps, please let me (us) know.

Okay, now what?

These are probably not going to be the last apps we see trying to make a profit off of what fanfiction authors provide for free. Stay vigilant, protect your content, report infringements, defund these apps and developers that drive traffic (and donations) away from AO3 to line their own pockets with your hard work.

If people want to read fanfiction badly enough, they can sign up for an AO3 account and read it there. I hear AO3 has a mobile app (?), there are browsers and “reader view” settings individuals can use that make it easy to read text on mobile devices, no one is going to suffer if they read fanfiction directly from the source. If anything, it will encourage more user sign-ups and donations during each fundraiser drive.

REJECT THIRD-PARTY FANFICTION APPS. THEY ARE HARMFUL TO AO3 AND THE FANFICTION COMMUNITY AT LARGE.

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