It's capital all the way down
One of the latest developments in the world of fanfiction is a debate over "archive-locking": making one's fanfics only visible to registered users of the archive on which they're hosted (usually Archive Of Our Own). The argument in favour is that this prevents unintended use of the work (such as scraping into LLM training datasets) while still allowing members of the "community" to read it. The argument against is that this makes fanfiction less accessible, especially to newcomers and long-time lurkers.
This isn't exactly a new issue. I archive-locked a lot of my fanfiction years ago, after a similar uproar: someone (or several someones) had been scraping works off AO3 in ebook format and selling them. And before that there was another round of archive-locking, specifically in hockey fandom, over some fucking thing Aja Romano was doing.
The reason scammers keep trying to steal and monetize fanfic is that the internet financially incentivizes them to do so. Amazon's Kindle publishing platform has both wide reach and a relatively low barrier to entry, and Amazon itself has grown so huge that it would be a logistical nightmare to moderate its listings — so, for the most part, it doesn' (especially since the company gets a pretty big cut of every fraudulent sale on its platform). The end result is that Amazon is awash with stolen fanfic (and AI-generated books by models trained on fanfic) and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.
Now, there isn't a lot of money in this kind of scam. Even if you luck into the attentions of Amazon's algorithm, there's only so many people who will see a book with an AI-generated cover and a description that sounds suspiciously like erotic Star Wars fanfiction and decide that's something they want to buy. But, as we learned from 404 Media's investigation into AI slop on Facebook, even the relatively small margins on content spam can help pay the rent — especially if you're living in a place where "legitimate" employment is scarce, dangerous, or pays like shit.
Ultimately, this archive-locking debate is one small facet of a big, old problem that those in power refuse to fix — either because they don't consider fixing it to be their job, or because fixing it would be actively detrimental to their business model. All AI has done is increase the scale of the consequences.
itch.io Autumn Sale
For the next week, all my paid titles are on sale over at my itch.io store! You can get any book for 25% off, or all my books in a bundle for just $6.00 USD (50% off what it would usually cost to buy them all).
Sale prices are valid until end of day December 5th.
Podcast Appearance: I Will Fight You
In the latest episode of I Will Fight You, we discuss the Tim Burton movie Big Fish and get really emotional. There's some crying involved. Don't worry about it.
You can listen to the episode here, or wherever podcasts are found.
New on Ko-fi: "Sebastian Moran Inflicts Six Traumatic Brain Injuries," Chapter 4
Chapter 4 of "Sebastian Moran Inflicts Six Traumatic Brain Injuries" is now up for all supporters on Ko-fi. If you don't want to wait for Chapter 5, you can also get the entire novelette as an ebook.
This Week's Links
One member of the Facebook group said that they asked the AI bot “how do you cook Sarcosphaera coronaria,” a type of mushroom that was once thought edible but is now known to hyperaccumulate arsenic and has caused a documented death. FungiFriend told the member that it is “edible but rare,” and said “cooking methods mentioned by some enthusiasts include sautéing in butter, adding to soups or stews, and pickling.” The situation is reminiscent of Google's AI telling people to add glue to pizza or eat rocks on the advice of a Redditor named Fucksmith.
This Christmas Party Was So Fun That Now I’m a Communist
This party was so far off the fucking chain that you could have one of two magic women tell you what was going to happen to you in your future. And if you didn’t like what she said, you could get a second opinion, and never be more than thirty feet away from a fondue pot.
Defaulting is the root of a great many evils. Defaulting happens when we don’t think too much about something we write – a character description, a gender dynamic, a textile on display, the weave of the rug. Absent much thought, automaticity, the brain’s subsconscious autopilot, invokes the easiest available prototype – in the case of a gender dynamic, dad will read the paper, and mom will cut the protagonist’s hair. Or, in the case of worldbuilding, we default to the bland fantasy backdrop we know, and thereby reinforce it.
I'm not giving you a link to my AO3 account. It's out there. If you're really that interested, take some initiative and find it yourself.
-K
