#ebooks tree

[f4mouspr0phets]

does anyone remember the ebooks tree thing where they were taking fics off ao3? could someone do me a favour and check for any fics under the name fandom_and_stuffs in the search and alphabetical organized bits? i cant get on the site

[worshipthefandom]

Hey thieves, stop trying to profit off stolen fanfiction

Fanfiction authors are reacting to the news that the for-profit site ebooks-tree.com has stolen works from hundreds of authors' pages on Archive of Our Own, Tumblr, and other sites. Ebooks Tree reposted works, but only the name of the work and the author is visible, requiring a login and credit card number to download them.

Some authors have searched their pseudonyms to find dozens of fics or more posted without their authorization.

Here’s how the community is responding.

[stars-inthe-sky]

A Book is the Author’s Property, ‘tis the Child of his Inventions, the Brat of his Brain; if he sells his Property, it then becomes the Right of the Purchaser; if not, ‘tis as much his own, as his Wife and Children are his own—But behold in this Christian Nation, these Children of our Heads are seiz’d, captivated, spirited away, and carry’d into Captivity, and there is none to redeem them."

Daniel Defoe, 1710, in his plea for an author’s copyright (via Act Four)

[skeleruris]

Update on the Ebooks-Tree situation

Just thought I would share. I sent an email to ebooks-tree about my fic on April 13th. While I have not heard back via email, I checked today and found that my fic is no longer listed when I search my name or the title. I don’t know if it’s anywhere else, but it doesn’t appear to be on the site anymore!

So keep sending those emails, because they’re working!

[dresupi]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Update on Ebooks Tree content.  

[lauralot89]

My works have been taken down from the Ebooks-Tree site.

[stars-inthe-sky]

ao3org continues to be the best. 

The news post in question is also worth a read.

[grassangel]

ebooks tree update

so apparently ebooks tree has removed fics... except not really.

1. ebooks tree dot com now redirects to dot net. The dot net domain was registered 1st of April 2015. It was updated on the 14th of April 2015.

2. If you search your username, no results pop up. That means there’s no fic right? Except the search doesn’t work. Even for a simple search like ‘James’ returns no results, despite having titles by Jameses on the front page.

3. To actually find an author, you have to use the letters at the top of the page. Admittedly there are fewer entries and fewer works than before, but they’re still present. (Sorry girlinpinkboots and Eustacia Vye, you are close to my own username and the most prodigious author I could think off the top of my head respectively.)

4. This rather circuitous way of finding titles probably does mean the main method this site is using to profit is through delivering ads. Thankfully I have adblock, so no revenue for you! (Although phishing scams and malware proliferation do likely still apply.)

So ebooks tree has done something in response to all those DMCAs. Except instead of taking the site down, instead redirects to a site that doesn’t have a working search function but still has lists of works available through a rather circuitous process of looking for the author’s name.

It’s worth noting that the download links still redirect to a service with ad-centre ads. (No, I’m not going to visit urbookdownload and see what kind of dubious site it is, although once again that is a newish domain with a recent new owner.)

I’m not surprised that apparently a tidal wave of DMCAs hasn’t discouraged this site at all from continuing their practises. And possibly even making things worse now those fic downloads definitely aren’t fic.  I’d still advise caution when dealing with the site and to use adblock and Chrome or Firefox and NOT downloading anything if you are going to see if your fic is still up there. I don’t know if hitting them with DMCAs again will help or if they’ll just start up again or ignore them and continue exploiting visitors to their site.

Curious about what I dug up previously about ebooks tree and the sites it redirects to? Here’s my previous post.