AO3 just sent me a takedown notice regarding my own stuff. I’m not sure what the appropriate reaction is.
It may be time to walk away from AO3.
Email:
Hi,
The AO3 Policy & Abuse committee has received a complaint regarding your work “Bloodharvest”, located at https://archiveofourown.org/works/9304163, stating that it violates the AO3 “no commerce” rule.
After investigation, we have found this is indeed correct. Further, we have determined that this work is a non-fanwork.
Section IV.B. of our Terms of Service states that “Promotion of commercial products or activities is not allowed.” Additionally, our ToS FAQ explains: “We want the Archive to remain a non-commercial space. That means that it isn’t the right place for offering merchandise, even fan-related merchandise. Linking to your personal page (not, for example, an Amazon author page) is fine, even if the personal page includes some items for sale, but the Archive is not advertising space.”
The ToS FAQ also explains: “In addition, we will enforce the noncommercialization policy strictly, including a ban on works posted to promote the sale of the author’s other works, even if those are not hosted on the site.”
The Archive does not consider “promos” or “teasers” to be fanworks. Since the larger work is available commercially for sale and can never be posted in full on the Archive, pieces of that work used to advertise it also do not count as fanworks.
As such, we require you to remove this work and to edit out all the offending content from your account within 7 days. This includes anything that might be in any other works, tags, comments and in your profile. While we have specified one or more instances of commercial promotion violations on your account, this is not necessarily a comprehensive list. It is your responsibility to ensure that your account is in compliance with our Terms of Service.
If you don’t delete the offending material by the date given, we’ll hide this work and any other violating works so they are only visible to you. If the works are not edited within a week of being hidden, an Archive administrator will delete this work and any other violating works.
When you created your account, you agreed to comply with our Terms of Service, including our “no commerce” policy and our fanworks policy. A formal warning has now been placed on your account; failure to comply with the terms of this letter, or further violations of the ToS, may result in the temporary or permanent suspension of your account. You may consult our Terms of Service FAQ for more information regarding warnings and suspensions: https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq#content_faq
If you wish to appeal this decision, or you have any questions or mitigating information, please reply directly to this email.
TK
AO3 Policy & Abuse