After seeing one too many works on AO3 with links to patreon, ko-fi, and PayPal, this is a very friendly reminder to NOT DO THAT. Please DO NOT link any money-making ventures or any kind on your AO3 page or your works or you account.
Well, ever seen disclaimers on works saying that the writers donât own the characters and are in no way benefiting from this monetarily? Ever wondered why theyâre there when AO3 takes care of that for them since itâs untouchable?
The entirety of AO3 falls under Article 13, which belongs to a larger set of copyright laws passed by the EU. Typically, under this law, âcontent-sharing services must license copyright-protected material from the rights holders.â
As in, get permission from the original creators/artists/writers/producers/whomever that owns the stuff that you want to use. Fanworks use characters and stories and other material from sources that are copyright-protected. Now, imagine if the 5,369,000 (and counting) works on AO3 consisting of 34,610 (and counting) fandoms had to get permission to even exist.
That is basically the recipe for fandom to end, because the process of getting permission and going through the right channels all to write a 1K story is... not worth it. Itâs not happening. Everyone would simply stop (or go via illegal routes which only hurt fandom in the long run) and that would be it.
So, back to AO3. If youâre reading this post, you know what AO3 is. You know why it exists. You also probably know its history. Maybe you even know the tremendous amount of effort, dedication, and perseverance that a team of people had to put into creating AO3. Or why all this effort was necessary, thanks to fandom history, history, and more history.
If you have no time to click the links, please just know that fandom has had a long history of trying to find a space and not get shut down or sued.
AO3 is designed to be a solution to that, to give fanwriters, primarily, a space to share their works without fear of being sued or jailed or fined or shut down. None of it. And Article 13 lets it exist, because AO3 is a ânon-profit online encyclopediaâ that DOES NOT MANY ANY MONEY OFF OF WORKS.
Nor do its writers, as far as AO3 is concerned.
If a profitable business is linked to an account, thatâs infringement upon an EU law. If reported, your account can be shut down and if serious enough, people can start going after AO3. And AO3 is staffed entirely by volunteers who really shouldnât have to deal with this.
Link to your tumblr. Link patreon and ko-fi on your tumblr. Chances are if someone likes your work to be able to pay you, theyâll check out your tumblr first. Do whatever you have to do, but not AO3.
If we lose AO3, or anything happens to it, another large chunk of fandom will be lost. Yahoo Groups is closing/is closed. Tumblr has had its share of bans. LJ and FFN are either now not used or they have extremely strict bans. DW is emerging, but itâs no replacement for the sheer capacity and capability of AO3.
I donât want to sound annoyed or preachy since people may not know and this is their first time hearing about it, or people are just forgetting, but history repeats itself. A lot. And when times are uncertain right now... I wouldnât take the risk. Not for myself, and certainly not for the 2,178,000 (and counting) users on AO3.
