{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0829","record_version":1,"title":"ao3.life scrapes AO3 fanfiction, reposts without consent and sells AI-generated audiobooks","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":44.1,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":4.48,"unhedged_language":4.29},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-04","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"Only a republished copy: Yahoo · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":1,"developing":true,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-04","history":[{"date":"2026-11-04","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"Only a republished copy: Yahoo · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"1bd83772f1e51d338bc1116fad8cc161142cdb096892bb2b7538b7bffaeebdf4"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"production","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":"selling their works as audiobooks","safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-11-03","incident_class":"ip_infringement","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"ao3.life hosted an outdated, unauthorized copy of the Archive of Our Own fanfiction site, reposting works without authors' consent, including older versions, deleted works and private works; by November 2 it hosted 15,831,236 works. It claimed to pay authors by selling their works as AI-generated audiobooks, with proceeds split 91% to the author and 9% to the site, and required authors to email from their AO3-associated account to be paid or have work removed, which users alleged was a phishing and doxxing attempt. The OTW said its legal team was taking legal and technical steps to dismantle the site; on November 2 the site went dark and was replaced by an apology from its creator, described by fans as a 17-year-old from India who wanted to run an AI farm.","tags":["data-scraping","non-consensual-reposting","ai-generated-audiobooks","copyright-infringement","phishing-allegation","fanfiction-archive"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":"third_party","adversarial_actor":"external_attacker","input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":"In December 2024, fans spotted WordStream, a site calling itself the \"Netflix of audiobooks\" that pulled popular fics from AO3 and reposted them with AI-generated audio, covers and summaries."},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"moderate","severity_because":"Moderate: the works of many third parties were copied and republished without consent at a stated bounded scope of 15,831,236 works, but no monetary loss figure, regulator involvement or safety-of-life fact is stated.","harm_class":["ip","privacy","financial"],"affected_description":"15,831,236 works hosted on ao3.life; authors whose works were reposted without consent","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":["pii"],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/while-ao3-down-fanfiction-clone-143000456.html","publisher":"yahoo.com","date":"2026-11-03","type":"press","title":"While AO3 is down, fanfiction clone sites are reposting authors’ work without consent, and one was even selling AI audiobooks","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"derivative"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"D","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"C","system.intended_use":"C","event.date_disclosed":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.summary":"C","event.tags":"C","event.responsible_party":"C","event.adversarial_actor":"C","event.precursor_events":"C","event.incident_class":"C","impact.severity":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.data_categories_exposed":"C","impact.severity_because":"C","context.industry":"C","context.country":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.deployment_context":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"ao3.life was the worst offender. It claimed to pay authors by selling their works as audiobooks, with proceeds split 91% to the author and 9% to the site."}],"system.intended_use":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"It claimed to pay authors by selling their works as audiobooks, with proceeds split 91% to the author and 9% to the site."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to Kotaku, it hosted an outdated, unauthorized version of the fanfiction website, with works reposted without the authors' consent."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Users also found older versions of their work, plus works they had deleted or made private."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"By November 2, Fanlore says the site was hosting 15,831,236 works."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"It claimed to pay authors by selling their works as audiobooks, with proceeds split 91% to the author and 9% to the site."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Fans say the audio was made using generative AI, and authors say they never agreed to any of it."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Getting paid or getting your work removed required sending an email from the account associated with your AO3 profile."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Users on social media alleged it was an elaborate phishing and doxxing attempt, and one widely shared warning told authors not to email the site for takedowns because it had no business holding that information."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The OTW said its legal team was taking legal and technical steps to dismantle the site, but before that finished, ao3.life went dark."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to fan accounts, on November 2, the site was taken down and replaced by an apology from its creator."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"One fan summarizing it said the owner described themselves as a teenager who wanted to run an AI farm to make some money and did an in-depth scrape of AO3, and likely some other sites."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to Kotaku, it hosted an outdated, unauthorized version of the fanfiction website, with works reposted without the authors' consent."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Fans say the audio was made using generative AI, and authors say they never agreed to any of it."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Users on social media alleged it was an elaborate phishing and doxxing attempt, and one widely shared warning told authors not to email the site for takedowns because it had no business holding that information."}],"event.responsible_party":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to fan accounts, on November 2, the site was taken down and replaced by an apology from its creator."}],"event.adversarial_actor":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"One fan summarizing it said the owner described themselves as a teenager who wanted to run an AI farm to make some money and did an in-depth scrape of AO3, and likely some other sites."}],"event.precursor_events":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In December 2024, fans spotted WordStream, a site calling itself the \"Netflix of audiobooks\" that pulled popular fics from AO3 and reposted them with AI-generated audio, covers and summaries."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to Kotaku, it hosted an outdated, unauthorized version of the fanfiction website, with works reposted without the authors' consent."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Fans say the audio was made using generative AI, and authors say they never agreed to any of it."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"By November 2, Fanlore says the site was hosting 15,831,236 works."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to Kotaku, it hosted an outdated, unauthorized version of the fanfiction website, with works reposted without the authors' consent."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Users also found older versions of their work, plus works they had deleted or made private."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"It claimed to pay authors by selling their works as audiobooks, with proceeds split 91% to the author and 9% to the site."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"By November 2, Fanlore says the site was hosting 15,831,236 works."}],"impact.data_categories_exposed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Users on social media alleged it was an elaborate phishing and doxxing attempt, and one widely shared warning told authors not to email the site for takedowns because it had no business holding that information."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"By November 2, Fanlore says the site was hosting 15,831,236 works."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to Kotaku, it hosted an outdated, unauthorized version of the fanfiction website, with works reposted without the authors' consent."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The document does not name the generative AI model or developer used for the audiobooks, nor any agent framework; the AI appears as a content-generation tool, not an autonomous agent, so agent_involved is false and failure_class is null. No date is given for when the scraping or audiobook sales began; only the November 2 takedown and the November 3 publication date are stated. The owner's identity (17-year-old from India) and the AI-farm motive are attributed to fan accounts and explicitly unverified. The alleged phishing/doxxing is an allegation by social media users, not a confirmed event. The possible link between ao3.life and the AO3 outage is speculation and is not recorded as an incident here. No monetary loss, author count, or remediation duration is stated; the 15,831,236 figure is a work count, not an affected-person count, so third_parties_affected_count is left null. Country is unknown because the operator's location is unverified. incident_class is ip_infringement as the closest fit for unauthorized reposting and AI-audiobook sales of copyrighted works; privacy and financial harm are secondary. Extractor proposed values without quotes; dropped: ['context.country', 'context.denominator_available', 'context.incident_evidence', 'context.regulatory', 'event.agent_involved', 'event.date_disclosed', 'event.detection_method', 'event.trigger', 'system.autonomy_level', 'system.developer']. Single secondary source; corroborate before upgrading any field to B. [2026-11-04: evidence level set: Preliminary (Only a republished copy: Yahoo · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":"fanfiction publishing / online content archive","org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null}}