Several popular shops, which clearly violated Etsy's terms of use and IP laws, were deleted after 404 Media reached out for comment.

Etsy sellers are turning free fanfiction into printed and bound physical books, and listing them for sale on online marketplaces for more than $100 per book. It’s a problem that’s rattling the authors of those fanfics, as well as their fans and readers.

Several sellers, easily found on Etsy and very popular, each with hundreds of five-star reviews, are selling copies of fanfiction taken from sites like Archive of Our Own (Ao3) and reselling them as bound books. The average price of these bound copies is around $149. Some sellers claim that they’re simply covering the cost of materials, while others just sell the books, usually with the fanfiction writers’ Ao3 username on the cover.

  • mods_are_assholes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    4 months ago

    I don’t think sellers that think taking other people’s IP for their own profit is the kind of person who can be polite.

    • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      32·
      4 months ago

      Is not IP if it’s public domain, probably the main reason is not the authors property is because it never was in the start as they just copied from someone else’s work.

      If you love capitalism then it’s horrible and evil, if you love literature and society of ideas then it’s great.

      A lot of stuff I release is cc0 explicitly so people can copy it freely, some uses copy-left so it can’t be sold for profit - These are informed choices I make, of people aren’t making informed choices then do I really have to care if they don’t get what they want?

      If someone wants to put my stories into a physical volume that’s fine, I created them to create and to spread my mind virus.