Fluff AO3 app and Fanfic Pocket app are mirroring AO3 content while offering paid subscriptions to their app. Fanfic Pocket in particular are brazenly showing ads on each fanwork too. I have contacted both asking them to remove my works from their app.
To their credit, V from Fluff has already replied to me and will remove my works from the app and prevent future works being added so if anyone else wants their works removing I just used the contact form and got a reply within a few hours.
I also wanted to post part of the reply I sent back, because I think it’s important for people to understand why this is a big deal for fanwork creators, especially when the app is only offering subs/showing ads not putting out works behind a paywall like the Woodsign apps are:
“Please understand that many authors like myself specifically upload on AO3 because of their strong non-commercial stance unlike other sites that use free-to-read fanworks to make money via ads or paid premiums that do not benefit the work creator at all. This sort of thing goes against the very purpose of the Archive that allows fanwork creators to control the distribution of their works and whether or not money is made from them at all, and if any money is made it goes directly to the person who created the work.
While I appreciate that you have worked hard on the app and don’t disagree that you should be permitted to make money to cover your costs, I hope you realise that by doing this solely off the back of other people’s fanworks you are effectively preventing us from receiving cost-covering donations ourselves. Perhaps people would object less if it were a single-time donation request offered without being pushed on users via pop-ups, the same way we rely on readers clicking through to our social networks and finding our donation pages. Which, obviously, they won’t be doing if they’re reading on your app and paying you for a subscription already - why would they give money to a creator when they are already paying for the fics? For example, I am unemployed, disabled, and living on the poverty line. I make zero income from my fanworks, why is it okay for you to make income from the works I create for the love of writing and to stop myself from going stir crazy since I almost never leave the house due to my illness, while I am wondering if I can afford food each week?
I hope this goes some way to explaining why I and many others object to our works being distributed on a platform that offers subscription options or shows ads alongside our hard work.”
If anyone else would like to use any of this verbiage or rephrase it to suit you, please feel free! And I strongly urge anyone who has an issue with this to contact these apps and politely ask them to remove their works.
In the meantime, I set one of my works to “show to registered users only” and that seemed to remove it from the app, though I’m not logged in to AO3 on either of them (I don’t want to give them my username and password) so I don’t know if that will make a difference for people who are, but it’s an option at least temporarily for anyone concerned.
Please feel free to reblog and I hope for a quick resolution for everyone <3
All my work is on the pocket app and everyone I’ve searched for is there. I’ve sent an email asking for my fics to be removed, we’ll see what happens.
