What becomes of websites when the "author" dies?

[AG31]

Back in the day, if someone wrote worthwhile stuff, it would be collected in libraries. What happens now? Even if it's not worthwhile. It might still be interesting to people.

Is there a better word than "author" for my title?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Is there a better word than "author" for my title?

Owner?

When the lease on domain name and hosting expired, the domain would become available again for someone else to use.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Owner?

When the lease on domain name and hosting expired, the domain would become available again for someone else to use.

We speculated once about the owner, who seems be two people at most. I don't know if they have plans for a future without them in it. I guess the site itself could be taken over or sold to one of the other sites that does virtually the same thing. Or maybe it's like the corner pizza shop when the owner quits or dies: it disappears. While one can sell old pizza ovens, I don't know if the 500,000 stories here have any value. Don't expect the the Library of Congress to archive "Sitting on My Son's Lap," the most viewed story on the site.

Emily Dickinson didn't publish most of her poems while she was still alive. Somehow they were discovered and they are still in print (or on-line). But none of us are Emily Dickinson. She herself was perhaps indifferent to having a "legacy."

"How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell your name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!"

 

[AwkwardlySet]

We speculated once about the owner, who seems be two people at most. I don't know if they have plans for a future without them in it. I guess the site itself could be taken over or sold to one of the other sites that does virtually the same thing. Or maybe it's like the corner pizza shop when the owner quits or dies: it disappears. While one can sell old pizza ovens, I don't know if the 500,000 stories here have any value. Don't expect the the Library of Congress to archive "Sitting on My Son's Lap," the most viewed story on the site.

Stories are just text, which means it would be very easy to keep them as an archive. Hell, a medium size USB drive can store all 600,000+ of them easily, even in an advanced format such as docx or html.
Regardless of what the future holds for Literotica, I don't think these stories will ever be lost.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Owner?

When the lease on domain name and hosting expired, the domain would become available again for someone else to use.

And the contents preserved in the Wayback Machine - although I don't know the permanence of that. It would still need someone managing that domain name. Maybe someone does, I don't know.

 

[stickygirl]

Like anything else, all the content will be preserved by both the CIA and GCHQ and available to law enforcement so that we can be rounded up and sent to Greenland.

 

[AG31]

Owner?

When the lease on domain name and hosting expired, the domain would become available again for someone else to use.

But what happens to the content? Is there a place one can stash no-longer-active websites?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

But what happens to the content? Is there a place one can stash no-longer-active websites?

The content should stay saved on the server, at least for a while, although it wouldn't be available for public access anymore. As EB mentioned, there is The Wayback Machine that archives the content of websites, but I am not sure if it stores only the first page of each story or more.

Basically, the only person who could preserve the database of Lit stories is the person with admin access to Literotica's backend.
Well, I suppose any of us could start saving them on our own PCs, page by page, story by story. It would be amusing to calculate how long such a process would take

 

[Cagivagurl]

A valid question.
Something I personally hadn't thought about...
Literotica, I assume is a legitimate company...
If the owners did sell the web site / company to another entity.
What happens to the content??? Does it still belong to the writer, or does it pass along with web site???
If it was sold to an organisation I didn't like. Could I get my stories removed???
I'm making an assumption, that the rules of copyright would offer the writers some protection seeing as how they were never purchased in the first place...
For me it does open a question... Which I don't know the answer to. Not being an expert on law.
Other sites such as You Tube make it incredibly difficult to get stolen material removed. If this wweb Site was sold to an organisation like that. It might be difficult to get your work deleted or removed...

Cagivagurl

 

[jaF0]

We speculated once about the owner, who seems be two people at most. I don't know if they have plans for a future without them in it.

Once? Today?


The Future of Lit has been discussed almost as many times as ratings and comments.


Nobody knows and neither Laurel or Manu have ever responded to any questions about it. At least not to anyone who has repeated it here.


They have to be in their fifties at a minimum, probably sixties like so many posters here.


Apparently there used to be gatherings back in the last 90s or early 00s where some have met them, but I'm not sure any of those folks still post here.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I mean ever. Something like 83% percent of all websites on the web are inactive. I don't think that includes those that sold their domain names but once existed with a different owner.

Someday we may put in our link and get a 404 message.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Well, I suppose any of us could start saving them on our own PCs, page by page, story by story. It would be amusing to calculate how long such a process would take

Minutes. Actually, maybe 30 seconds. It would take on wget command.

Oh, you mean to actually run? Hours, if you have a fast connection and Literotica doesn't throttle you. Text is small.

-Rocco

 

[gunhilltrain]

Minutes. Actually, maybe 30 seconds. It would take on wget command.

Oh, you mean to actually run? Hours, if you have a fast connection and Literotica doesn't throttle you. Text is small.

-Rocco

I'm missing something here. You mean copying the entire site's contents?

 

[PennameWombat]

Back in the day, if someone wrote worthwhile stuff, it would be collected in libraries. What happens now? Even if it's not worthwhile. It might still be interesting to people.

Is there a better word than "author" for my title?

There is the domain name and there is the actual storage holding the contents. In many cases, they're not 'together.' URLs can be redirected behind the scenes to where the actual data resides, but that's all just details. A domain (set of URLs) remains so long as someone maintains/pays for it. In some cases, such as blogs on Google, etc., those are 'free,' but some of the hosts impose "unused domain" tests. At some point, the domain/URL can be considered unused or unpaid for, and will be reclaimed. I've seen "this domain for sale" when visiting old websites.

Other than that, someone might be paying to host data on a cloud service or in a colocation center (a data center that rents out storage space.) If you quit paying for this, they'll possibly archive the data before they erase it.

Long way to say, there is no simple way to describe this. As mentioned, the Internet Archive;'s Wayback Machine does try to preserve much of the internet. But there's no guarantee they get everything. And, oh yeah, they're an internet site storing data on digital media.

But generally, websites just go 'poof' and disappear.

The 'Dark Ages' after the fall of the Roman Empire are called 'dark' because we simply have so little documentation for what happened. Primary sources largely disappear for a few centuries, and we mostly just have after the fact descriptions. Why documents like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and the like are so important.

IMHO, the late 20th and now the 21st will leave gaps, not necessarily a truly 'dark' age. Books are still being written, and although paper does degrade, all it needs to survive is semi-decent conditions. But electronic digital data is difficult. Hell, try to find a reader for a floppy disk (3.5 or 8 inch). So there will be gaps. But a key gap is newspapers. So many of them have moved purely online, that day to day events aren't going to be covered in the same ways as they've been.

Whether the intent of this thread was to discuss Literotica's eventual fate, that's mainly up to the site owners. Whether they're interested in chiming in on estate planning is up to them.

And for folks here, since all of us are (in some fashion) self-published authors, be aware your copyrights survive you, but also your accounts. Especially if you're on KDP, IngramSpark, or others, or you're actually signed to publishers, ensure your heirs know what's where. Those sites all provide procedures to deal with deceased account owners. They're entitled to continue earning royalties (where they exist.) But they can also decide what to do with your free postings (such as here.) There's also the case of enforcing copyrights when someone decides to use AI to narrate a bunch of stories, or tries to incorporate them into a book.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Owner?

When the lease on domain name and hosting expired, the domain would become available again for someone else to use.

And is quite likely to be snapped up by squatters, especially if it was a popular site.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The content should stay saved on the server, at least for a while, although it wouldn't be available for public access anymore. As EB mentioned, there is The Wayback Machine that archives the content of websites, but I am not sure if it stores only the first page of each story or more.

Basically, the only person who could preserve the database of Lit stories is the person with admin access to Literotica's backend.
Well, I suppose any of us could start saving them on our own PCs, page by page, story by story. It would be amusing to calculate how long such a process would take

Wayback will go beyond page 1, and its coverage of Literotica is pretty good, but I would not depend on it capturing everything. If there's specific content you do want captured, and especially if you want to capture it at a specific date, I'd recommend asking Wayback to do so (it's easy, they have a form and you just paste the URL in and hit the button) rather than depending on their automated archiving.

That said: Wayback is great, I love them, but there are various threats to their existence; it'd be wise not to put all one's eggs in one basket if there's something you want preserved.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Minutes. Actually, maybe 30 seconds. It would take on wget command.

Oh, you mean to actually run? Hours, if you have a fast connection and Literotica doesn't throttle you. Text is small.

-Rocco

Somebody did it a few years back; they put a compressed archive of all Literotica's stories on the cloud somewhere and posted a link on Reddit. IIRC it was about 6 GB as a zip file. Say 400K stories at that time, that's about 15 KB per story, compressed... seems about right.

It got taken down after complaints, but I'm sure copies exist.

 

[Zrosey]

Like anything else, all the content will be preserved by both the CIA and GCHQ and available to law enforcement so that we can be rounded up and sent to Greenland.

Woah now! Don't you mean sent to Red White and Blueland?

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1161

 

[gunhilltrain]

Woah now! Don't you mean sent to Red White and Blueland?

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1161

Somebody said (I'm paraphrasing): "Who needs satire when reality is already so weird?"

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I'm missing something here. You mean copying the entire site's contents?

Yes.

Example from Github:
wget --recursive --page-requisites --adjust-extension --span-hosts --convert-links --restrict-file-names=windows --domains yoursite.com --no-parent yoursite.com

Source: https://gist.github.com/crittermike/fe02c59fed1aeebd0a9697cf7e9f5c0c

Say it's a 10 gigabyte download: a decent internet connection could do that in a few hours. It's essentially two full DVDs.

-Rocco

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yes.

Example from Github:
wget --recursive --page-requisites --adjust-extension --span-hosts --convert-links --restrict-file-names=windows --domains yoursite.com --no-parent yoursite.com

Source: https://gist.github.com/crittermike/fe02c59fed1aeebd0a9697cf7e9f5c0c

Say it's a 10 gigabyte download: a decent internet connection could do that in a few hours. It's essentially two full DVDs.

-Rocco

Nothing personal, all my fellow authors, but why would I want those half-million stories? To be balanced, who would really want my 139 submissions?

 

[ElectricBlue]

A valid question.
Something I personally hadn't thought about...
Literotica, I assume is a legitimate company...
If the owners did sell the web site / company to another entity.
What happens to the content???

Lit is a publishing platform, and if it was bought as a going entity, the content would remain.

Does it still belong to the writer,

The content is always yours. You've given the site permission (through the terms of service) to publish, and you've benefitted from the platform, using it's publication capability.

If the new owner tried to monetise our content, we'd all be entitled to royalties.

or does it pass along with web site???

See first reply, up above. The website's value, if it could be valued, is intrinsically tied up with our content.

If it was sold to an organisation I didn't like. Could I get my stories removed???

Yes - they're yours. You own them, so you should have that right.

I'm making an assumption, that the rules of copyright would offer the writers some protection seeing as how they were never purchased in the first place...

Not much, unless you're prepared to defend your copyrights in court - if it ever came to that.

For me it does open a question... Which I don't know the answer to. Not being an expert on law.
Other sites such as You Tube make it incredibly difficult to get stolen material removed. If this wweb Site was sold to an organisation like that. It might be difficult to get your work deleted or removed...

Probably true. Essentially, it's a risk you've accepted if you publish here.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Lit is a publishing platform, and if it was bought as a going entity, the content would remain.

The content is always yours. You've given the site permission (through the terms of service) to publish, and you've benefitted from the platform, using it's publication capability.

If the new owner tried to monetise our content, we'd all be entitled to royalties.

See first reply, up above. The website's value, if it could be valued, is intrinsically tied up with our content.

Yes - they're yours. You own them, so you should have that right.

Not much, unless you're prepared to defend your copyrights in court - if it ever came to that.

Probably true. Essentially, it's a risk you've accepted if you publish here.

Thanks,
That all makes sense...

Cagivagurl

 

[Unblemished]

As said, a text archive could easily be made and apparently has been in the past.

One interesting thing to note is that the fanfiction site Archive of our Own handles this for other fanfic resources: Old websites, fic lists, fandom archives, etc. If the original owners pass or can't maintain them any more, AO3 can scan them into their own site to preserve them for the future.

While they do host original fic too, I doubt they'd take on the entirety of Literotica. But who knows? Maybe the celebs and fan fic category might make it out...

 

[AG31]

Whether the intent of this thread was to discuss Literotica's eventual fate,

Actually, I meant all websites. So much of our intellectual lives are found there now. Even some local newspapers have gone totally digital.