transformativeworks:

fyeahcopyright:

We’ve been getting pings and @’s all morning about ebooks-tree.com who seem to be scraping/taking stories off of AO3 and hosting them as PDFs and mobi downloads on their site; the site seems to be pulling from UrBookLibrary as well. They’re not reading your “do not copy/duplicate” notes on your AO3 fic; their bots are pulling things directly from AO3, without AO3′s authorization or assent. It looks like they are pulling from Wattpad too, again without authorization or assent. 

While the Ebooks-Tree DMCA page seems to imply that you need a lawyer or other “authorized person” to submit a takedown notice, you don’t; you can do it yourself

As we’ve posted before, fanfic writers hold copyright in their stories, although not in lines/quotes from the works they’ve been inspired by, and because of that, fanfic writers can submit DMCA takedown notices, or have someone do it on their behalf. While this post isn’t legal advice (none of our posts on FYC are), you might want to consider using this template (well, the bolded bits) in telling ebooks-tree to take down your content

Your Name and/or Pseudonym as an e-signature (or the name of the person you’ve authorized to submit this request, with a slash before it and after it):
Link(s) to the unauthorized works (link to the pdf, the mobi and the page hosting all of it): 
Link(s) to an authorized version of your work (whether on AO3, tumblr, LJ or somewhere else): 
An email address of the submitter (include it again even if it’s in the header): 
This statement: I have good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
This statement: The information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

That’s it – that’s all they need to know – you can submit all the info via http://www.ebooks-tree.com/info.php?contacts with DMCA Complaint in the subject; you may wish to submit the same content to Google via this page, or to BING via this page

(Fwiw, even though they claim that they comply with the Copyright Act, they aren’t compliant with the DMCA Safe Harbor rules, as they aren’t listed on the copyright.gov list of agents.)

You can also submit a complaint about ebooks-tree to CloudFlare, who hosts the site. Their DMCA page is at https://www.cloudflare.com/abuse/form – as a matter of law you do not need to include the legal name of the copyright claimant/the fanfic writer, but  you should include the pseudonym that the fic was posted under if you don’t want to include a legal name or address.  

Hey, folks. Just so you know, the OTW is aware of this, and we’re working on deciding what action we might take as an organization. For now, here are some instructions on how to request that your writing be taken off the site.

You guys, they took one of my fics ;A; I’ll be pursuing them. To check to see if they took one of yours, copy the url below and replace my pseud with yours.

http://www.ebooks-tree.com/search.php?q=burnadette_dpdl

Fight the theft of fanfic! I’m going to send them DMCAs complaints as shown above. 

Hello, I was recently searching for ️Louis/Lestat fanfiction and came across someone saying that Anne ordered that there be no VC Fanfics online and I was wondering if this was true or not. If so, when did she say this and is this still in effect? Also, I write VC fanfics on Wattpad and you can find me @thevampirechronicles (: Also, I freaking adore your blog!

Hellooo there, thank you for the compliment! Fanfic?? there’s no such thing as VC fanfic… pfffft. What are you crazy honestly??!

image

^Lestat is laughing bc he knows I is sarcastic.

In short, Anne Rice had waged war on VC fanfic in the mid-90s, sic’ing her lawyers on many fanfic writers, eventually breaking apart fanfic sites (“speculative fiction” or “spec” archives/communities) and driving many of these writers to stop writing altogether or do so in a more underground way.

Currently, she’s had conflicting stances on fanfic, but hasn’t made outright war at nearly that level. We try not to tag her in discussions of it, basically, we don’t try to provoke her by making our caches of VC fanfic known. Especially on Facebook, where she’s very active and might see it (and definitely don’t send her any links to fanfic!!)

There are a few fanfic sites where ppl have been writing freshly!!, one of my faves is Archive of Our Own (aka AO3). Lots of good things about that site, one of which is the ability to bookmark/download/comment/kudos fics. They also have a mission statement about protecting these fanworks from copyright infringement arguments.

I checked out your wattpad collection, didn’t have a chance to read any in full, but you’ve got unique ideas and crossovers. I’d suggest reposting to AO3, it seems to be a more heavily fan-trafficked site.

Anne Rice consistently, and aggressively, objected to fan fiction based on any of her characters (mostly those from her famous Interview with the Vampire and its sequels in The Vampire Chronicles) or other elements in her books, and she formally requested that FanFiction.Net remove stories featuring her characters.[50] However, in 2012, Metro reported that Rice has taken a milder stance on the issue: “I got upset about 20 years ago because I thought it would block me,” she said. “However, it’s been very easy to avoid reading any, so live and let live. If I were a young writer, I’d want to own my own ideas. But maybe fan fiction is a transitional phase: whatever gets you there, gets you there.”[51]

Anne Rice, re: fanfiction.

So I just came across this quote on the Wiki page re: Legal issues with fan fiction, and it seemed relevant to the VC fandom. Maybe she doesn’t despise fanfic as much anymore!

This lack of fanfiction is a serious problem.. due to it, I’m now following 3 Lestat, 2 Louis, 2 Armand, and 2 Claudia rps…

The RPers are quite talented, I enjoy stalking them. Every one of them brings a unique angle, face claim, etc., to their muse; I love having multiple Lestats, Armands, Claudias, etc., to compare and contrast! 

There is fanfic out there… if u know where to look…. I share that bc it’s a relatively safe place, since they do defend their writers when possible. Some people here on tumblr also link to fic under cuts.

I hope you’ll understand why I can’t offer more assistance in this regard, Anon, as it’s still a touchy secret in the VC fandom… That Which Must Be Kept.