Are Ao3 Txt Downloads Legal For Offline Reading?

Question

Asking because I keep downloaded fic files from AO3 on my phone, but copyright and author permissions confuse me—are personal copies okay?

luan205 · Answer

Yes, this would generally be legal under the AO3 Terms of Service, because the work is made available by the author under one of the various Creative Commons licenses that allow non-commercial sharing and use, and is designed to be downloaded by readers using the ‘Download this work’ functions provided by AO3 for just that purpose. For a more curated, professionally-written set of stories exploring adult themes, you might look for a work such as ‘Forbidden Desires: A collection of sinful hot stories’ which is available as a standard ebook that can be purchased and downloaded to read on any device, without any legal concerns. The stories themselves are character-driven and very bold.

Violet · Answer

So I finally have an answer to the saved long stories for train rides. Honestly, I have wanted to do this before but wasn’t sure if it was legal. Most fanworks on the Archive of Our Own are created by individual authors and thus are owned by said author(s) and the original IP holder for the characters and setting in which the story was written. Thus, it would fall under the law of copyright if one were to copy and redistributes said work. However, this does not mean that one cannot download a copy for their own personal reading offline.

I look at a story’s notes and tags for licensing information. If an author states that a story cannot be reposted or they have posted under a Creative Commons license, then I will adhere to the terms stated by the author. If I’m still unsure whether or not a story can be saved for offline reading, I will read it in my browser’s offline mode or contact the author and ask. And of course, never share or upload a saved copy of a story to anywhere else. That’s just respectful.

Quinn · Answer

I treat stories that are public domain or licensed with a permissive license the same way I would treat any public domain work: I can download it for offline reading if I choose to. For works that are not public domain, I treat them as someone's creative property. Typically it is okay to download a work for personal use, but redistribute it or upload it elsewhere and you risk violating the author's rights in the work. Many authors include tags or notes at the bottom of their work indicating whether they are okay with downloads, cross posting, etc.

Ask the author or read the work online and read it offline using your browser’s offline reading feature. It’s a small amount of courtesy to show the author of any work that you respect them.

Felix · Answer

Looking at this from a technical perspective I'd look at the following three aspects: The website that hosts the stories, the legal aspects of copyright, and the author's intent. From a feature set perspective, Archive of Our Own sometimes makes it very easy to save stories for offline reading, but having the feature on a website does not automatically override the legal rights to a story. What that means is that, generally speaking, copyright for a text resides with the author of that text, and even if a story is posted on Archive of Our Own, unless it's been released under a license that permits copying (such as a Creative Commons license) or the author has given you permission to make a copy, reproducing a copy of the story (even for your own private use) could be a copyright infringement.

Some jurisdictions recognize private copying as a doctrine to be applied in specific circumstances (their specific laws vary widely). When I make a local copy of a story, the only risk to me would be if I distributed it to others. I prefer that authors put up “official” download/export buttons for their work. When an author indicates that a story may not be downloaded, I respect that. When in doubt, I download with the understanding that the copy is for my personal use only and I will not distribute it to others. If I plan to quote from or re-post a story, I first contact the author for permission and then be sure to give proper credit where it is due. This simple habit has saved me from many embarrassing communications.

Scarlett · Answer

Be polite to your friend and explain the key difference between work being public on Archive of Our Own and them having permission to copy, rehost, etc. Downloading a work for single device offline reading is pretty much standard for really long multi-chapter fics, and is not likely to get anyone into any kind of trouble as long as they keep any downloaded copies private. However, any redistribution, uploading to other sites, etc. is a solid no.

Practically, I would then look at the author’s note, their contact information, whether they have enabled download of any form, whether they’ve posted the same work on multiple platforms and so on. If the author has posted their work on multiple sites and enabled download, I would assume that it is okay to download a copy for yourself, provided you check first. I would then send the most courteous message possible and ask for their permission to download a copy. Often the author is more than happy to grant you permission to download a copy for your own personal reading and I would even offer to delete the copy that I have downloaded should they request it. Being considerate helps to keep the community healthy and I can sleep better in my bed knowing that I’ve done the right thing.

Ailil De Guzman Pionilla · Answer

The argument about preservation of work sways me. The internet is ephemeral, things are removed from the net all the time. Stories get deleted, authors disappear. Downloading a fic that you've enjoyed is preserving a piece of fandom for history. AO3 is all about preserving fandom for posterity, so your download of a story is fulfilling the site's mission.

Is it illegal to save art that you love? That wouldn’t be very encouaging for culture to be locked away by copyright. Even within the confines of strict copyright laws, fair use allows for archiving of work that may be lost otherwise, especially for non-commercial purposes. It’s likely that saving a fic that you love to read later would fall under fair use to be saved in your personal archive, similar to how public libraries save works for cultural and learning purposes.

Abubakar Mohammed · Answer

I made this. It is on this site. It has been approved by the site's lawyers. So, long as you are using this for offline reading, that should fall under the terms of service for AO3, which you agree to when using the site. So, it is authorized by the site and thus by the authors who have chosen to publish on the site.

Some author may object to this, but they can already turn off downloading for their own work if they wish to. In practice most authors don’t care either way, because legality of file-downloading is not just a matter of black-letter law: it also involves licenses and permissions. AO3’s interface already gives you implicit permission to do this. Your shield.

Patience Onora Arthur · Answer

I love that this is data-respectful. I can read this anywhere (planes, basements, etc.), but I appreciate that AO3 wouldn’t be legally OK with offering HTML-saving if it were risky for them. AO3 has already fought so many battles to allow fanworks of all kinds, and they have a legendary legal team. I trust their judgment, especially given that their terms, and the design of the feature, have been worked out to be this way via their best wisdom.

I trust that they have included this in their design and terms and have thought through the legal implications. I trust their legal team who have no doubt defended the site against much greater threats than this before. I trust that they have got this right and therefore it is okay for me.

Make Way · Answer

Making a copy of a work is one of the actions that copyright protects; but not all copying of a work is in fact infringing. Copying for purposes of fair use is allowed. The fact that your copying and use is noncommercial and personal, as well as transformative, will likely mean that your actions constitute fair use. Your copy does not replace the original work that is available for free on the AO3 site.

It won’t harm the author’s ability to earn money from their work because they’re publishing it for free. In fact, it could help them by encouraging more people to engage deeply with their work. Even applying all the four fair use factors in turn, it would likely be considered fair use: Factor 1 – purpose and character: You have created a copy for personal, noncommercial purposes. Factor 2 – nature of the work: It’s a published creative work. Factor 3 – amount and substantiality: The whole work was copied, but that was necessary for your purpose. Factor 4 – effect on market: There is no harm here either. The balance therefore tips in favor of fair use.

Marlyn Munda Alejo · Answer

This makes me think of the “right to repair” arguments that have been going on recently. In essence, who gets to use a thing after they buy it. When some one posts something on AO3, they are granting the public the right to read it. Does that include saving a copy for later reading? My gut, and I think most people, would say yes.

Restricting your right to use something to deny you the ability to make minor non-invasive copies for your use of the thing is unjust. As I said above downloaded .txt files of fics are digital bookmarks. They don’t replace the original work and they don’t help you to commercially exploit the work. The law tends to side with what is seen to be fair by common understanding, and thus restricting your right to use a work to download a .txt file of it in order to read it later would be unfair.

Jo Jae · Answer

I suppose, technically speaking, one could call this infringement. But so too is taping a song off the radio, which Betamax held to be fair use. The key principle at work here is that time-shifting of freely available material is not infringement.

AO3 fics are freely available. So you're not infringing because you're time-shifting (or device-shifting) your reading of freely available work. The precedent is on your side. The Supreme Court case about VCRs set a powerful standard for personal, non-commercial copying. The technology has changed, but the core function of copying broadcast work for personal, later consumption is similar. You're good.

Cindy Lepley · Answer

This never even occurred to me. I have lots of AO3 .txt files on my Kindle. The model for this sort of thing feels so normal to me – just like recording TV shows on the DVR, authors get hits and kudos when you download their work to read, and you can then read it whenever you like.

However, I would be concerned if stripping the author’s notes and metadata from the work was considered unethical. As it is, the .txt download includes all of that, so it feels respectful to me. Of course, if an author said that they’d prefer that people didn’t download their works, I’d respect their wishes, but until then, on AO3, there is permission for downloading the works.

Are Ao3 Txt Downloads Legal For Offline Reading?

12 Answers

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