Sharing Patreon Content
I was just Googling to find a reference I had used on an old Patreon post, and was surprised to discover a site called Kemono that allows users to import content from paywalled sites such as Patreon to permanently archive it in an unpaywalled form. And indeed, to find that Kemono is currently hosting a complete archive of all my $5+ content, including the unposted TARDIS Eruditorum essays up through Legend of the Sea Devils and the link to the Dropbox folder hosting all of my ebooks.
I am not going to go deal with a DMCA complaint or any shit like that to get it taken down. I imagine it'd be a lost cause, and I've little desire to dirty my hands with legal enforcement methods I don't believe should exist in the first place.
However I would like to express my extreme disappointment at whichever of my Patrons is doing this. I am financially dependent on this Patreon. It pays my rent every month and is my only job. I'm an absolutely tiny independent producer who makes the overwhelming majority of my content available for free. Virtually the only thing I use a paywall for is to give a short exclusivity window to people who financially support me. Nearly every single post that is up on Kemono is stuff that will be going up on the website soon anyway.
And frankly, I don't care if you forward a post to a friend cause you think they'll like it. I don't care if you send the un-DRMed ebooks to people. If you want to share my work, go right ahead.
But systematically breaking the paywall on content I'm going to post for free anyway is just shitty. The only thing it serves to do is make it harder for me to keep a roof over my head. And I would like to politely ask that whoever is doing this stop.
Thank you for your support. The Power of the Doctor post is in progress and already at 3000 words, and I'm looking forward to getting it out to you all soon. But I'd really like it to just go out to you, instead of being uploaded to a site whose only purpose is to screw over small creators who are trying to make a living.
Comments (4)
Oh wow. That's just shitty.
You would think fans of this particular Patreon would know not to pull this shit. I'm all for ripping off giant companies, but ripping off small time creators is low. Sorry, El.
You have my deepest sympathy. And I recognise that there isn't much that can be done about it, as the legal remedies are not designed to work for 'us' (my wife once had a whole trove of her artwork stolen and used in a Hong Kong Action Theater RPG supplement: have a guess how easy it is for a Japanese citizen in Japan to get any redress from a US copyright thief. Thank YOU Gareth-Michael Skarka). What was done here was a whole lot worse than my own favourite piece of plagiarism: the guy who stole the 'amusing' copyright notice I once put in my fanzine, and stuck it in his book of SF weaponry artwork. Anyway, though it isn't much, I've upgraded my own tier by way of solidarity, and would urge anyone who was, like me, bumping along on the stingy $5 level to do the same.
I appreciate that a lot. What kills me here is that I'm about as pirate-friendly a creator as can be. I don't put DRM on any of my releases. I absolutely do not mind my books being on pirate sites. I have posted them there myself, just as I've posted links to free copies countless times. Almost everything I do is up for free. So to see someone who looks at that and goes "I'm going to undermine the one tiny bit of exclusivity she does" just feels like such a fucking betrayal.