No, I truly want to know why Webnovel can't. Do they not have a slightest bit of responsibility towards the content that is posted on their platform?

Let's keep aside non-contracted novels. What about the contracted ones? How is Webnovel silent about the content getting pirated that they have got a right over?

We know - piracy is wrong and illegal in every way yet we can't do anything about it? Why is that these piracy sites owners get away so easily, do not feel a bit of shame in stealing people's content and continue doing that even after being called out?

    LostInFictions It’s not that WN can’t do anything about it, it’s because it not worth suing those piracy websites, unless those piracy websites get a lot of traffic on the good books that they “stole”. So for example if the piracy website makes tons of money out of the books that they stole, then it’s worth suing them and get a chunk of that money they earned.

        Well... yeah it must feel pretty bad for authors and translators under contract to see this happening. And obviously readers would not care as much as them, even more so with the way webnovel is limiting free users.
        Honestly there’s many points and views about this regarding webnovel in particular and piracy in general. As I said in other post before not even giants like Sony or Disney can monopolize it’s intelectual property... even more so when you talk about digital content. So I doubt webnovel would truly be able to do something about it. It’s not like it didn’t try before... and failed too.
        I am not in favor of piracy. And will use official channels in all opportunities I have. That’s why when webnovel went after it’s novels that were being translated to English for free and decided to launch it’s “international version” I came here. And that’s why I stayed for 2yrs.
        But you know? There is the other side too. The side of why are people going to those sites instead of using webnovel. Why people that came here for a official channel are leaving. That’s a complaint to be made to webnovel.
        Also... well... let’s just say webnovel is not as clean as you think in regards of stealing works... and before I get judged as feeling entitled to wanting to read for free... know that at the beginning 90% of webnovel works were available for free, with few being “premium”. Just how at first all original works were free.
        There’s also the point of how ridiculously expensive reading a novel here is compared with other forms of entertainment as books, ebooks, movies and series. Even more so considering readers only buy the right to access and not the novel per se. If service providers like Netflix and Spotfy charged like webnovel a lot of clients would flee to piracy from them too.
        It’s 2 sides of a same coin. Just as authors and translators deserve to be paid, readers also deserve to be charged reasonably. The one responsible to find the balance between them is Webnovel.

          Zhinoy Sometimes Webnovel can't do anything about it. It's a rare exception, but they are not that hard to achieve if you set on it. To explain it simply: you can host site and site domain in a country that doesn't have laws against internet piracy. DMCA is a US law, and for it to be effective other countries have to accept it.
          Google "thepiratebay letters", you will see examples.

              Exinaus

              Though DMCA is indeed a part of US copyright law, but many hosting providers outside of the US would usually comply with any DMCA takedown notices due to their own countries copyright law (if any), to avoid any legal aftermath in their own countries.

              Besides that, there's also WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organizations) copyright treaty, which gives serious consideration to DMCA takedown notices and as of now, there are around 190+ countries that have signed the treaty.

              So, WN can still do something about it, but just as @Zhinoy stated, they probably don't think it's worth the time, effort, and money to do it.

                LostInFictions for the original authors, they just have to dm a staff for it. as for translated, there's a reason why they let it stay. do you think webnovel would still have the readers they have now if it weren't for that? i had a thread that was locked in which i didn't mention to use their brain to read on pirate sites and spent a reasonable sum in here. qidian itself has pirate sites too, like 69shu and stuff. plus like the points above, it's too troublesome. it's like a double hit on them, losing readers and wasting time and prolly quite a sum of money to take a lot of them down.

                    Zhinoy What you are saying is maybe right from Webnovel's perspective. My question is does Webnovel not have a bit of responsibility towards the content that is posted on their site? Because if they do, they have to take care of this matter.

                    It may not be worth for Webnovel if thought from monetary perspective. However, as an author, who is seeing her work somewhere she hasn't allowed it to be - I find not just suing them worth doing but also letting them go behind the bars for a while because it infuriates me that they have all the time in the world to steal others' content but they don't have even a minute to reply to the e-mails by the authors who do no want their works to stay on their sites.

                    I am not sure how everyone feels about this but it truly and absolutely infuriates me.

                        Cantiara I find discord a little tricky to use with all those hashtags and stuff. I would be really grateful if you could let me know where I would be able to find the official staff on discord.

                        Thank you in advance! : ) : )

                            Nizze Um no, I don't think Webnovel is to be blamed for readers leaving official place and going to the pirate sites. I said this yesterday as well, and I am saying this today as well - it is always an individual choice.

                            People who have been reading my comments might just get bored but let me put it for one last time. I promise, people - one last time. So, you go to a store and really like something but you are on a tight budget. What do you do? You either drop the plan if it is ridiculously expensive and move on, or you wait until you have enough money to spend on it. You don't go and support thieves who would let you have the stolen material.

                            I understand your sentiments though but what can we really do about it? This is a business and we don't have a say in the prices they increase.

                            🙃

                                LostInFictions

                                You would need to join the discord server for WN's writers. I'm not a part of that server, but this is where it is:

                                https://discordapp.com/invite/9XfhsEz

                                I think you have to sign up using the same username as your author name on WN.
                                Once you've joined, you can send the staff a message.
                                I have no idea who the staff are because, again, I'm not a part of that server, but maybe @Reinesse can help you out?

                                  LostInFictions What people like you don't understand is, piracy is a non problem. You are gonna ask, why? Well you see, there is this simple explanation for it. The people who use the pirate sites are people who wouldn't be paying either way. Some may be able to afford to pay and are just being scrooge mcducks, but the overwhelming majority are people who just can't pay. So, either with piracy or not, WN won't be getting anything from them. So really, there is just no point in fighting it as it would just be a waste of money and time. I would compare fighting internet piracy to fighting climate change, but with a lot less importance. It literally requires whole world to band together to purge the internet completely, but yeah, we humans can't even band together to solve other bigger problems. So fat chance on that one...

                                      N0xiety What you don't understand here is it is not about money. I am a non-contracted author. I barely have six chapters and my book is on one of the pirate sites.

                                      It's not about the readers reading there for free. It is not about the pirate site making money. It is about my book. It is about my story. I don't allow anyone to post it anywhere where I do not permit. It is my story and I am posting it on Webnovel and if anyone or any site is using it and posting it on their site - it is unacceptable to me. Piracy, in any way, is wrong. It disappoints me that people think that it's not a serious.

                                        I think I would have to explicitly mention it here - it is not about money. Taking someone's content and posting it without that person's permission is illegal. It's unacceptable.

                                          LostInFictions Yeah, true it may be unacceptable, but so are many other things, like climate change. What can you or i do about it? Like i said, internet piracy, just like climate change, is a problem that requires the whole world to band together to solve completely, but it is also a problem that not many people feel they have any stakes in nor feel like throwing money on. It is a silent and almost invisible problem to the majority of the people in the world. They know there is a problem, but most just don't care or want to do anything about it. All you can do is try to instill personal responsibility so people do their part, but well, that really doesn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme. Simple as that...

                                              N0xiety This is a very lazy attitude I would say. If we raise our hands in air with this convenient reasoning that we can't do anything about this, we can't do anything about that - then we definitely can't do anything.

                                              I don't even get to be honest how you are comparing Internet piracy to climate change and let me tell you, you can do a lot even about climate change and no it doesn't require the whole world to come together. The world will come together when it has to but until then, you can always start from yourself. Do your part and leave the rest. If everyone sits, stating we can't do anything about a particular thing and nobody starts - that's where the problem lies and that's exactly why we don't have a solution.

                                              It might not make a huge difference but to reach to that point, we at least have to make a difference first.

                                                  LostInFictions Well you have to know that WN is owned by Qidian and afaik Qidian doesn’t give a duck. I recently read on a blog about an author’s work got stolen, as in somebody copied his/her work and then put everything on WN. When the author contacted WN/Qidian they didn’t do anything and he/she is forced to put everything either on patreon or list them on WN him/herself, just so nobody could earn from it. It wasn’t the only work that she/he had either.

                                                  Anyway from what i have read and heard Qidian bad or it could be a big fat lie just to cause some friction, who knows.

                                                      LostInFictions Words are pretty, but reality is not. It may seem like a lazy attitude, but sometimes impossible is just impossible no matter what you may think or say. Like i said, you can try to instill personal responsibility so people do their part, but that really doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme. Some people just have bigger problems in their lives, so they couldn't care less. Personal responsibility is a privilege when it comes to problems like these. Problems like internet piracy is not critical to the lives of most people. That is the reality of the situation. And yes, completely stomping on internet piracy requires all nations to sit down and agree on the same rules and regulations, and allocate comparable ammounts of resources to take strong action on all fronts while collaborating with each other openly. Well, that sure ain't gonna happen since some nations just couldn't care less nor do they have any stakes in the whole deal. They have other, bigger problems of their own to solve first. Hell, some are swimming in corruption, so yeaaa. Most of the damage is done to 1st world countries entertainment and media business, not to these nations. There is no incentive to solve it for them. It actually brings business to them since the pirates set up their servers there. It is all about money and benefits. It may not be about money to YOU, but to the world, it absolutely is.

                                                      This applies to WN too. WN is a business, and they can't just throw money at a futile problem. As a business, they obviously have priorities. They also made it pretty clear that they don't care much about people who aren't willing or able to pay, which are the only people who use the pirate sites to begin with. So it really is a non problem to them in the end.

                                                      If internet piracy one day becomes a huge financial problem for the whole world, and it actually becomes cost effective to solve the problem once and for all, then maybe there will be greater attempts at solving the problem. But right now, you stomp on one pirate, another one just pops out. And stomping on them one by one costs a lot of money and resources, which achieves absolutely nothing in the end. Still, first world countries do stomp on the ones that get too fat and big, which requires multiple nations law enforcement collaborative action. Doesn't change the fact that it is damn expensive and achieves nothing in the big scheme. All it achieves is just to send a message and placate the big wigs behind the media empires. Reality is reality, you can't change it. If you want to do your own part, go ahead. If you want to preach, go ahead. No one can stop you. But know that it doesn't make your efforts any less futile in the end...

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