Theft of Fanfiction Perpetrated by Cliff Weitzman, WordStream, Speechify

On December 22, 2024, fanfiction writer Easter Kingston discovered that Cliff Weitzman (Ofek Weitzman), CEO of Speechify, scraped thousands of popular, finished works off AO3 to list them on his own for-profit website word-stream and the attached app. 
He did this without getting any kind of permission from the authors of said work or informing AO3. When the fandom community was made aware of his theft and started pushing back, Weitzman first issued a non-apology on the original social media posts and then temporarily took down the website where the fanwork was listed. 
When it came back up a few hours later, the fanfiction category was no longer listed, and individual fanfics were no longer accessible. They are, however, still viewable by users who signed up for a membership to the word-stream app and accessed the works before Weitzman hid them from view, indicating they remain on word-stream’s servers. 
To date, Weitzman has not issued any sort of public admission that he did anything wrong, even though his actions went directly against AO3’s TOS, violated the affected authors’ copyright and broke fair use policy. 
Fans, of course, are almost universally enraged.
==The Discovery==
An early exchange between Easter Kingston and another fan, tumblr user makicarn:
It quickly became obvious that this was bigger than first realized. From a recap a few days later by J.D. Riley: 
==Similar Controversies==
* Podfic and Last.fm (October 2010)
* Ebooks Tree (2015)
* AO3 App Wars (2020)
* AO3 & AI Generated Content (topic: scraping of AO3 for training AIs) (May 2023)
* Lore.fm (a text-to-speech app that advertised itself as "Audible for AO3" and was designed for use by fans to listen to audio versions of fanfiction) (May 2024)
==Some Topics Discussed==
* fandom and profit
* the long history of crooks like Cliff Weitzman, who are non-fannish tech opportunists stealing the creative works of fans to line their own pockets
* hypocritical marketing and disingenuous use of people with disabilities
* artificial intelligence being used, surprise! for nefarious and greedy purposes
* strategies for combating Weitzman (and similar thieves)
** public shame
** turning him over to corporate TPTB
** commenting on his media space
* more
==Keep It Civil!==
From Easter Kingston, who discovered the thievery, a plea for no violent threats:
==Going Forward==
From Easter Kingston:
==The Original Post of Discovery==
On December 24, 2024, Easter Kingston, a fanfiction writer, posted on their Tumblr about what they had discovered: theft, piracy from fans' stories posted to Archive of Our Own.
 
There is a short version, and [a long version with a timeline, many more details and screenshots]; [archived link].
==AI Fuckery and Inaccurate Covers==
 
The app also used AI generated cover art that often did not reflect the nature of the fic's contents
 
==Fan Comments at Tumblr User ekingston==
'Netflix of audiobooks' scrapes thousands of fanworks off ao3 without permission. Yours, likely, included, comment at Tumblr user ekingston (beginning Dec 22, 2024) 
===General Comments===
===The Hypocritical Accessibility Brag===
===Which Fics Got Chosen===
===Fanfiction and Profit===
===Legalities, Lawsuits, Visibility===
===The Villain=== 
===This Has Happened Before===
===Some Screenshots Embedded===
File:Screenshotfrom ekingston-1.jpg|what a plagerized link looked like
File:Screenshotfrom ekingston-2.jpg|the second, revised message from Weitzman in response to Kingston’s tumblr post
==Fan Comments at Reddit by EasterKingston==
From So your fic was stolen & then quickly hidden from view by Speechify CEO: update & full recap regarding the word-stream situation by EasterKingston (Reddit) (Dec 25, 2024)
NOTE: EasterKingston and ekingston are the same person.
===General=== 
===The Hypocritical Accessibility Brag===
===Which Fics Got Chosen===
===Fanfiction and Profit===
===Legalities, Lawsuits, Visibility===
 
===This Has Happened Before===
 
==Links and Further Reading==
 
* does anyone know wtf word-stream.com is or where to send them a takedown request? ; archive link by Tumblr user ekingston (Dec 22, 2024) 
* 'Netflix of audiobooks' scrapes thousands of fanworks off ao3 without permission. Yours, likely, included; archive link by ekingston (Tumblr) (Dec 25, 2024) 
* So your fic was stolen & then quickly hidden from view by Speechify CEO: update & full recap regarding the word-stream situation; archive link; another later link by EasterKingston (Reddit) (Dec 25, 2024)
* Hundred of Fics Stolen by A.I. Scraper for Profit; archive link by J.D. Riley ("Cliff Weitzman, CEO of Speechify and Word-Stream admits to having stolen hundreds of fanfictions to power a profit-driven audiobook subscription service.") (Substack) (Dec 27, 2024)
* The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction by Elizabeth Minkel (December 31)
==References==
Category:Unfolding Events
Category:Scandals
Category:2024 Events