#bot scraping

[tinypandacakes]

Attn authors on AO3! Just learned about this on a writing discord I’m in and thought I’d share.

A new website, https://rivd.net/, has cropped up and has been shown to have stolen/scraped works from Ao3, which are being scraped and uploaded at a rather impressive speed.

At this time, it isn't clear if site owners have wised up and have started taking the fics down, as the site requires an account and also the current *justified outrage* at this has led to an apparent overload on the site's servers, meaning they've basically shut down the search and privatized their fanfiction category.

The best way to protect your work if it has not already been scraped is by locking it to all logged out users. It’s unfortunate as guest comments and kudos are so precious to us authors, but it will protect your works from being scraped.

Further information can be found in this Reddit thread and the below screenshots: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1dvyvqm/ao3_fics_being_uploaded_to_rivd_by_a_bot/

NOTE: DO NOT USE RIVD's DMCA TAKEDOWN FORM. You SHOULD NOT be required to provide your *government ID* to protect your intellectual property. This is borderline a phishing scam. RIVD is hosted by Cloudflare, who have a system for reporting abuse on sites which use their services which can be found at the following site: https://www.cloudflare.com/trust-hub/reporting-abuse/.

Thank you @punemy-spotted for compiling all this info and helping get the word out.

[altschmerzes]

every day i see 500 posts about archive-locking fics to protect from bot scraping and every day i just want to bang my head into the wall over and over because

1. It Has Already Been Scraped, the damage is done.

2. archive-locking fics is only a Good Solid Protective Measure against bot scraping if you believe that people who have the ability to create and shape this kind of technology cannot make some fairly minor adjustments to access archive-locked fics. it would not be hard. that’s like saying ‘i’m worried about getting stabbed so i have put on a lace-woven cardigan.’

3. ao3 did not “recommend that everyone do this” as i’ve seen about 400 of those 500 posts say. they, in the post where they confirmed scraping had taken place, said that if people wanted to do something that was an option for something they could do if they felt like it. hardly an urged warning that everyone really should take this as an important safety and security measure.

4. the only people this is deterring are people who don’t browse logged in or don’t have an account. literally all you’re doing is making your fic harder to access for people who actually want to like....... read it. it’s security theatre at best and maybe this is a very small hill to die on but i’m very tired of seeing dozens of posts urging everyone to do this Right Now because it’s Critical to protecting your fics from ai bot scraping. that’s just......... can we think about this for a second.

[ginnyw-potter-archive]

hey there! I was on Ao3 and couldn’t give any of your work. Do you know what happened???

Hi!

Yes, they are now visible to registered users only. If you log on you'll be able to see it and they'll all have a lock beside it. They're still there!

I didn't want to do this, and I thought about it for a long time, but I wanted to protect my fics from any type of bot scraping, and at least this puts up a little bit of a barrier (though not completely unfortunately).

I don't want to train AI with my writing but I was reluctant to do this still because I know that means some people will not be able to access the fic because of that. And now there was another website called Rivd that was scraping fics off AO3 and reposting them to their website (luckily it looks like that one is offline already) and that was the tipping point for me. I've had fics reposted to Instagram before and couldn't do anything about it (they're still up!). A lot of times these requests involve giving your legal name and details to someone for a take-down request. Websites like Rivd are not going to care.

So do log on if you have an account. If you absolutely for some reason cannot make an account and log on, just message me on here or discord and I'll happily send you a link to a Google doc. I'm not trying to keep humans out, just the bots.

TLDR: they're now for registered users only because of bot scraping and fic stealing

[winters-tales]

Hey fellow writers, serious time!

Huge thanks to @korblez for notifying me as I'm no longer on twitter!

If you write or have ever written fanfic then it's worth going over to Plush Books on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BMB1RG5J/about - and checking to see if one of your titles is there. At the moment, it looks like in excess of 500 written pieces have been scraped from Archive of Our Own and are being sold in ebook format, without the writers knowledge or consent.

Twitter thread detailing the issue and how you can file DMCA takedown requests if you do spot one of your works there:

If you have an account on AO3, LOCK IT DOWN. Only allowed verified users to read it, people with genuine accounts. Does this suck for people who don't have an account? Sure, but it's not hard to get one. Lock your account down to prevent this from happening. Put an authors note (just like back in the old LJ days eyyy) at the top of your fic stating you do not consent for it to be sold as an ebook.

And writers? I've seen an upsetting number of you saying you don't see what the big deal is about the AI artwork surge that's happening. Do you get it now?

Stand with visual artists. Say NO to AI!

[popcornfairy28]

Hey I've locked my fics for now

Due to concerns about RIVD, an AI company scraping AO3 right now, I've decided to lock my fics for only registered users. Currently, I'm keeping up my podfics for guests though, since the majority of those are of other people's works and I don't think they can scrape those as easily??? That may change though. I also have a few of my fics on fanfiction.net, which I can't lock there so 🤷‍♀️ I guess you can read them there if you're a guest.

I will probably eventually unlock my fics when this blows over, which should be a matter of weeks. But in the meantime it is also pretty easy to get an AO3 account, so I would encourage you to get that if you haven't already. I love all my guest readers, so just hang in there.

[isalisewrites]

Shaking my head.

Cute, but we have enough AI reading our shit as it is.

It does not bring me a smile to know that a bot read my fic and found a haiku. If a user found a haiku and told me, that would give me a smile.

I don't write for bots. I write for people.

[meg-does-art]

Artist friends: there’s a lot of ai bot blogs scraping art from tags for some new generator and posting the shitty ai “art”. I just went through and blocked an ungodly amount of them. I definitely recommend taking some time to go through @ai-art-thieves blog and block the ai bot blogs shown there. And remember to watermark, glaze & nightshade your art (if you can)!

Thanks to @ai-art-thieves for all your work tracking the thieves & the original artists down!

[mothcpu]

@hmmbo @hyjiinx thanks for the heads up, I'll look into filing a DMCA (is that only for original work? I'm not sure how it works for fan art). in the meantime uh, yeah, report @rokon24 for spam & block because it looks like it's just a bot copy pasting random posts for some reason -_-

[gumbo]

A few weeks ago i wanted to get a soj keychain or button for my backpack but i barely saw anything for her on etsy :-( jq only had slightly more than her…

embolden by my anger i decided to make my own keychains/charm concepts ^_^ i think they turned out preddy good even tho i barely draw chibis

also drew this sketch for fun but i would be too embarrassed to put this on anything but still wanted to share anyways ^q^

[kneelingshadowsalome]

hi! Why is dog only on ao3?

Honestly, I'm lazy 😶😶‍🌫️

But now that I had to put my works under lock and key (=visible only to registered users) on Ao3 I might post it here! 💕

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon forbidden west | talanah 15/?

[ginnyw-potter-archive]

I'm sorry if you've answered this question somewhere already, but I looked and didn't find anything: why are all but two of your fics set to members only on Ao3? I was half way through Knight of Mine and Spilt Blood and then one day they were just gone! :(

I did answer it but it was a bit ago!

The reason is mainly AI bot scraping. Not only are fics being used for GenAI, there are also just whole bots scraping websites and uploading fanfics to their site. This makes me really uncomfortable to think my fanfics could end up somewhere and I have no clue (I have people steal writing from me and is still up on insta with nothing for me to do about it)

The reason two are not is because they're new fics so I simply forgot to tick the box. Knight of Mine is also on fanfiction.net. If for one reason or another you can't get on AO3 or waiting for your invite link, just message me and I'll happily provide you with a PDF/doc link. I know it sucks, and maybe I'll put them open again but I don't feel like there are enough regulations currently for me to put all my fics up publicly. it sucks and I put it off for a little even but nothing improved

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Bloomberg is Private US Media]

Russia bolstered its influence in the troubled Sahel region of West Africa with about 100 military personnel from the country arriving in Burkina Faso on Wednesday, the first large deployment in that nation.

The troops, the initial contingent of a planned force three times that size, will provide security for Ibrahim Traoré, the president of the country’s military regime, and the Burkinabe people, the Russian Africa Corps said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.

24 Jan 24

[vehemourn]

i just wanna know. what does anyone want artists to do. im really just curious. Like if u steal all of our work and chase us out of all of the jobs and crush every single one of us until we either die or quit. Whats the end goal. artists provided their work for free for 2 decades and built their lives in digital spaces. And in a few years the landscape is changing drastically away from that :/. I'm fucking tired. I'm tired of artists being disrespected. And yet its not going to Stop. Our spaces are still snuck into and scraped, our work is still stolen, and we still have people that are just outright fucking nasty to us just bc u draw a furry animal or are queer. what is anyone supposed to do. our communities were destroyed. our spaces were destroyed. so many artists are Gone and scattered to the winds. What is anyone Doing.

[baldursghaik]

bg3 artists and writers (and a lot of other fandoms too, from the looks of it) should be aware of a spam account called @coldiacsx, this bot has been scraping art, fics, and other things, and they're using them to direct traffic to untrustworthy sites using fake readmore links that you should NOT CLICK

also fair warning, a lot of the material being scraped is pornographic. you should definitely report them and get this bot bullshit out of here

[honkai-news-network]

Ajita hd close-up model. (She appeared in flashback in Chapter 3) #HonkaiImpact3rd #Ajita #Hoyoverse

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