Summary

The Medium platform is facing an issue where a website called ICHI.PRO has been systematically hijacking and republishing all of Medium's content without crediting the original authors, coinciding with Medium's announcement of new terms of service that allow them to use content as they see fit without additional compensation.

Abstract

A new website, ICHI.PRO, has been identified for copying and republishing the entirety of Medium's content, including articles and publications, without giving credit to the original authors. This incident has raised concerns and sparked discussions within the writing community, especially since it occurred shortly after Medium introduced new terms of service that assert the platform's right to use writers' content however they choose, without extra payment. The timing of these events has led to speculation and suspicion among writers, with some taking to social media to express their frustration over the lack of response from Medium's staff regarding the protection of their work. A call to action has been made for writers to report the issue to the domain registrar of ICHI.PRO to take down the pirated content.

Opinions

The author expresses skepticism about the coincidental timing of the content hijacking and Medium's new terms of service announcement.
There is a belief that the creators of ICHI.PRO are acting without discretion, as they have not attempted to disguise their blatant replication of Medium's content.
The author suggests that Medium's legal team should be involved in addressing the piracy issue, indicating a lack of adequate response from Medium's staff to protect the interests of their writers.
The author humorously speculates about the identity of the content pirates, likening them to Somalian pirates with Chinese writing skills, though this is clearly not a serious assertion.
There is a sense of community and collective action among Medium writers, as evidenced by the coordinated effort to report the piracy to the domain registrar and the celebration of the site's apparent shutdown after the collective reporting.
The author encourages readers to subscribe to their newsletter in a manner they describe as non-intrusive, indicating a preference for respectful engagement with their audience.

Medium Content Being Hijacked Just as they Announce New Terms of Service

I’m no conspiracy theorist but it’s awfully coincidental

I’ll jump on the bandwagon of conspiracy theories for a minute, maybe three. Depends how long I can drag this article out.

Facebook groups are all abuzz with information about a new site called ICHI.PRO. I won’t give them the satisfaction of providing a link but you can go see for yourself if you like.

I’ll give it to you in a nutshell.

It’s a website that is actively and systematically hijacking ALL of Medium’s content. Not just the odd story but entire publications. They aren’t even changing the publication names.

It’s like they’ve copied and pasted the entire Medium platform onto their own site. The only thing they’ve excluded (conveniently) are author names. Nobody writing on Medium is receiving credit for their own work being published on that site.

The sleuthing skills of Marie T Smith uncovered that the domain for this website was purchased very recently.

Conspiracy?

Honestly, I believe the creators of the site are Somalian pirates who know how to write in Chinese.

Just joking.

But what doesn’t sit well is the fact that writers have begun taking notice of this site within THE SAME WEEK as Medium suddenly announced its new terms of service.

The same terms that advised writers that Medium can use their content in whatever way they see fit…..without extra compensation to the writer.

Weird coincidence, right?

The first I heard of it was when Yael Wolfe tweeted that her stories are being republished without her consent. Then the Facebook groups started lighting up with buzz that ALL of Medium’s content is being republished.

The only reason I’m writing this is because it’s like pulling teeth to get Medium Staff to respond to ANY emails that serve the writer. They seem to only respond at the speed of (slow) light when it concerns the platform itself.

I would say this concerns the platform. Plus, Medium has a legal team.

Whoever is behind the site are idiots. They haven’t even tried to disguise it. They have literally replicated major Medium publications along with all the content.

Seriously, not even your sex is safe. They’ve replicated Sexography too. If you’ve published any rants in Rogues Gallery, again…not safe. I publish there frequently so this doesn’t sit well with me.

It is HIGHLY likely that at least one of your articles has been pirated. For some of us, it’s many.

To see exactly which publications Ichi.Pro has replicated you can read a much more comprehensive, less conspiracy-related article here:

Data Aggregators Are Violating the Copyright of Thousands of Medium Writers (and Likely Medium…

Note: Thank you to Gaby Rosales for bringing this issue to my attention!

medium.com

Of course it’s unlikely that Medium is involved but it’s pretty weird that this is happening right when Medium announced its new terms of service.

The more people who read this and become aware, the faster we can do a take-down of pirates. Let’s all fire our canons at once.

How can you help take them down? We can do as the linked article above suggests. We can email our concerns to the domain registrar of Ichi.pro at:

[email protected]

Let’s all do our part in protecting our work!

UPDATE 24 HOURS AFTER WRITING THIS:

Several of us have tried to access the site again and it seems to be down!! I don’t know if it’s too soon to say that it’s permanently down but hello…..we just executed full-blown mutiny!!

This community is full of badasses!

If you enjoyed this story, here’s my non-intrusive way of ushering you toward my newsletter. When you subscribe, I’ll know you’re cool with hearing from me once in a while.