This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/someguynamedted on 2024-03-17 23:47:33+00:00.

Content Theft

Greetings citizens of HFY! This is your friendly Modteam bringing you a (long overdue) PSA about stolen content narrated and uploaded on YouTube/TikTok without your express permission. With the increased availability of AI resources, this is sadly becoming more and more common. This post is intended to be a resource and reference for all community members impacted by content theft.

What is happening:

Long story short, there are multiple YouTube and TikTok (and likely other platforms, but those are the main two) accounts uploading HFY Original Content and plagiarizing it as their own work, or reproducing it on their channel without permission. As a reminder to everyone, reproducing someone else's work in any medium without their permission is plagiarism, and is not only a bannable offence but may also be illegal. Quite often these narrations are just AI voices over generic images and/or Minecraft footage (which is likely also stolen), meaning they are just the lowest possible attempt at a cash grab or attention. That is, of course, not to say that even if the narrator uses their own voice that it still isn't content theft.

We do have a number of lovely narration channels, listed here in our wiki who do ask nicely and get permission to use original content from this subreddit, so please check them out if you enjoy audio HFY!

Some examples of this activity:

Stolen Content Thread #1: Here

Stolen Content Thread #2: Here

Stolen Content Thread #3: Here

Stolen Content Thread #4: Here

Stolen Content Thread #5: Here

What to do about it:

If you are an author who finds your work has been narrated without your permission, there are a few steps to take. Unfortunately, the mods here at Reddit have no legal methods to do so on your behalf on a different platform, you must do this yourself.

You as the author, regardless of what platform you post you story on, always own the copyright. If someone is doing something with it in its entirety without your permission, you have the right to take whatever measures you see fit to have it removed from the platform. Especially if they intend to profit off of said content. If no credit is given to the original author, then it is plagiarism in addition to IP theft. And not defending your copyright can make it harder for you to defend it in the future, which is why so many big companies take an all or nothing approach to enforcement (this is somewhat dependent on your geographical location, so you may need to check your local legislation).

• YouTube: Sign in to your YouTube account and go to the YouTube studio of your account. There is the option of submitting a copyright claim. Copy and paste the offending video link and fill out the form. Put your relationship to the copyright as original author with your info and submit. It helps to change the YouTube channel name to your reddit name as well before issuing the strike.

  • You can also state your ownership in the comments to bring attention from the casual viewer of the channel who probably doesn't know this is stolen work.

• TikTok: If you find a video that’s used your work without your consent you can report it here:

  • You can also state your ownership in the comments to bring attention from the casual viewer of the channel who probably doesn't know this is stolen work.

If you are not an author directly affected, do not attempt to fill copyright claims or instigate official action on behalf of an author, this can actually hamper efforts by the author to have the videos removed. Instead, inform the original author about their stolen work. Please do not harass these YouTube/TikTok'ers. We do not want the authors' voices to be drowned out, or to be accused of brigading.

If you are someone who would like to narrate stories you found here, simply ask the author for permission, and respect their ownership if they say no.

If you are someone who has posted narrated content without permission, delete it. Don't ever do it again. Feel ashamed of yourself, and ask for permission in the future.

To all the users who found their way here to r/hfy thanks to YouTube and TikTok videos like the ones discussed above: Hello and welcome! We're glad that you managed to find us! That does not change the fact that what these YouTube/TikTok'ers are doing is legally and morally in the wrong.

FAQ regarding story narration and plagiarism in general:

• "But they posted it on a public website (reddit), that means I can do whatever I want with it because it's free/Public Domain!!"

The fact that it is posted in a public place does not mean that the author has relinquished their rights to the content. Public Domain is a very specific legal status and must be directly and explicitly applied by the author, or by the age of the story. Unless they have explicitly stated otherwise, they reserve ALL rights to their content by default, other than those they have (non-exclusively) licensed to Reddit. This means that you are free to read their content here, link to it, but you can not take it and do something with it, any more than you could (legally) do with a blockbuster Disney movie or a professionally published paperback. A work only enters the public domain when the copyright expires (thanks to The Mouse, for newly published work this is effectively never), or when the author explicitly and intentionally severs their rights to the IP and releases the work into the public domain. A work isn't "public domain" just because someone put it out for free public viewing any more than a book at your local library is.

• "But if it's on reddit they aren't making money from it, so why should they care if someone else does?"

This is doubly wrong. In the first place, there are many authors in this community who make money on their writing here, so someone infringing on their copyright is a threat to their income. We're aware of several that don't just do this as a side-hustle, but they stake their entire livelihood on it: it is their full-time job. In their case, it could literally be a threat to their life.

Secondly and perhaps more importantly, even if the author wasn't making money from their writing and never did, it doesn't matter. Their writing is their writing, belonging to them, and unless they explicitly grant permission to someone to reproduce it elsewhere (which, FYI, is a right that most authors here would be happy to grant if asked), nobody has the right to reproduce that work. Both as a matter of copyright law, and as a matter of ethics--they worked hard on that, and they ought to be able to control when and where their work is used if they choose to enforce their rights.

• "How is this any different than fan fiction, they're just showing their appreciation for a story they like?"

Most of these narration channels are simply taking the text as-is and reading it verbatim. There's not a mote of transformative work involved, nothing new is added to the underlying ideas of the story. In a fanfiction, the writer is at least putting a new spin on existing characters or settings--though even in that case, copyright law is still not squarely in their favor.

• "Okay so this might normally be a copyright violation, but they're reading it in a new medium, so it's fair use!"

One of our community members wrote up a great explanation about this here that will be reproduced below. To summarize, for those who don't click through: no, it's not fair use. Copyright fully applies here.

This is not fair use, in any sense of the term. A public forum is not permission to repost and redistribute, unless that forum forces authors to grant a license that allows for it. An example often brought up in that respect is the SCP wiki, which sets all included work to be under a creative commons license.

That is not the case for Reddit, which grants no such licenses or permissions. Reading text aloud is not significant enough change to be a transformative work, which removes allowances that make things like fanfiction legal. Since this is not transformative work, it is not fair use as a parody.

Since money was involved, via Patreon and marketed goods, fair use allowances for educational purposes are greatly reduced, and no longer apply for fiction with an active copyright. (And if the author is still alive, the copyright is still active.)

There are four specific things that US copyright law looks at for fair use. Since Reddit, Youtube, and Patreon are all based in America, the relevant factors in the relevant legal code are:

1. Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes: this youtube channel is for profit, using original fiction with no changes whatsoever to the story. ...

Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bhcl44/content_theft_and_you_a_general_psa/