ICYMI, there was fear that companies were scraping public AO3 fics to train their AI without the consent of AO3 or its users. That fear has been confirmed.
AO3 has written about what they’re doing (and what they’re not able to do), and they recommend restricting your work to AO3 registered users only. [Instructions here]
This gross misuse of the archive by techbros is why I’ve locked down my fics for the foreseeable future. I recommend the rest of you do the same.
@lordoftherazzles made a quick guide for ao3 authors to lock all their works at once for registered users only here!
Someone recently messaged me worried I’d deleted all my fic - it’s all still there, it’s just locked to A03 because of this and other skimming instances.
Please note that many fanfic authors are locking their stories so that they are only accessible to registered Ao3 users.
They’re still there at Ao3. The authors have made this choice to protect their work from misuse/AI scanning.
another reminder y’all. Ao3 Authors are locking their stories to protect against misuse/AI scanning.
Yep! That’s what happened with mine soooo locked to users we go! Including my anon works. Especially the anon works.
I forgot about this! Got my locked down so if you can’t see them, you’re probably signed out
That’s horrible!!! I’m gonna have to change to users only.
