Comment on TOS Spotlight: Commercial Promotion

  1. AO3_Policy_and_Abuse (Official) Sun 29 Jun 2025 09:34PM UTC

    a stylized AO3 cat

    As stated in the TOS FAQ, "Linking, discussing, or referencing someone's presence (including your own) on a commercial platform is prohibited" and "linking to or mentioning the monetized content is not allowed". In other words, "you may not link to accounts, posts, sites, or pages that reference commercial activity in the URL, or that are primarily commercial in nature […] In addition, you may not provide instructions anywhere on AO3 for finding your commercial content elsewhere".

    Paywalled content is considered commercial in nature. If we receive a report that your work contains a link to content that cannot be accessed in full, for free, by anyone who visits the link, you will be asked to replace or remove the link. If you are particularly concerned, you can create and link to a "references post" on a social media site like Tumblr and update that post as needed, instead of including dozens of links directly in the notes of your AO3 work(s). However, you may not state on AO3 itself that your references include any links to commercial sites or products.

    The TOS Spotlight series quotes from, references, and/or summarizes the TOS and TOS FAQ in a more colloquial manner. As such, links to these posts may be added to the TOS FAQ in the future. In the meantime, we recommend that you share the links to these posts yourself, or to specific parts of the TOS FAQ where relevant:
    What kinds of things are considered "promotion, solicitation, and advertisement of commercial products or activities"?
    Can I talk about prohibited commercial activities on AO3 if I don't include any direct links or name any commercial platforms?

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    1. beardo Sun 29 Jun 2025 10:05PM UTC

      Doctor Fell from Scorn and the Saint-Maker

      Thank you for the clarifications!

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      1. JackieSBlake7 Wed 02 Jul 2025 01:25PM UTC

        So - to take examples people may be familiar with reference Wikisource has some biographies copied over from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (paywalled), and Project Gutenberg, Hathi Trust and similar by default; or say '[reference] - variously available for free at time of writing': the possibility for contributions exists but it is up to the reader to actively pursue that.

        And 'companies, trademarks and similar can be mentioned in the text if they would be logical in the contexts (but not necessarily 'product placement' as found in other contexts 'I really enjoy [brand etc]'

        Probably most people wish to abide by the spirit of 'the rules', some people will find themselves in the fuzzy areas (or the situation changes after publication, or ignorant-by-accident - and there will always be the occasional person who does not care about 'the rules' and the problems that can arise.

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