Yesterday, the popular subreddit NoSleep went private in protest, locking away thousands of stories created over the last nine years, and blocking its 12 million subscribers from reading, commenting or posting until it reopens on March 2. Their demand? Treat the NoSleep authors fairly!

Chances are while looking for something to watch on YouTube, you’ve passed a video titled something like “Top 5 TRUE Reddit Stories” or “Chilling Horror NoSleep Stories”; generally it’ll be a static video with a narrator (or a text-to-speech bot) reading iconic Reddit posts. While these videos make for easy listening, they often infringe on a creator’s rights, and profit off of stolen content. While there are already thousands of videos pulling posts from all over Reddit, the NoSleep subreddit has been hit particularly hard by YouTube creators monetizing the authors’ work without consent. Things get even more tricky as some of these authors move to turn their Reddit posts into novels, short story collections, or even podcast adaptations.

To combat the rise of illicit use, three new subreddits were founded to protect NoSleep authors. First, NoSleepWritersGuild, to form beneficial relationships between authors and narrators, then eight months ago SleeplessWatchdogs was created to alert authors when their content was found in violation of copyright laws. Lastly, a few months ago YTNarratorsGuild was created to teach YouTube creators the proper way to get the author’s permission to adapt their stories.

Despite the combined efforts of these groups, stolen work was rampant. Thus, another subreddit was established, TheWritersBlackout, with the purpose of educating authors to their rights, and demanding fair compensation from narrators. This brings us to the NoSleep blackout, and their reasoning: “This is being done not only to protest the theft and unfair practices by those who wrongfully profit from the stories…” The post goes on, “Without authors, there is no r/nosleep. An empty page is what will be found without them.”

Without authors, there is no r/nosleep. An empty page is what will be found without them.

But what are the rights of Reddit users?

First, it’s important to distinguish that Reddit is full of “free-to-read” content, meaning anyone with, or without an account can hop on and read stories. But, “free-to-read” doesn’t mean free to share, adapt, or sell. For more information, we can look at the Reddit User Agreement.

In “Section 4. Your Content,” Reddit states that “You retain any ownership rights you have in Your Content, but you grant Reddit the following license to use that Content…” The following license gives them worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual use to copy, modify, adapt or prepare your works. In other words, if you’re lucky, maybe a post of yours will show up in a Reddit ad! But the important distinction is you’re giving solely Reddit this license.

Second, “Section 2. Your Use of the Services” states that when accessing Reddit, you’re not permitted to license, sell, transfer, distribute, or modify anything found on Reddit. All this to say that everything you post on Reddit is yours, and that posting it does not give anyone permission to use it.

But Reddit’s support doesn’t end there. I talked to Christine Druga, an admin of the NoSleep subreddit, and when asked about the benefits of posting on Reddit, she said “I can’t speak to specific numbers, but the horror community on Reddit is HUGE and extremely supportive. The authors constantly protect each other, help each other, promote each other, and often work together in publishing endeavors both on Reddit and on things like publishing anthologies on Amazon. Not to mention that it’s relatively well known that publishers, producers, etc are pretty consistently searching r/nosleep for stories to option and work with. There’s so much opportunity and camaraderie, it’s really special.”

The blackout is just one grand example of Redditors standing together. Their message: “We’re trying to tell the world that r/nosleep stories and their authors are protected by copyright laws, and that those who would like to work with them must ask permission at least, and compensate the authors at best. We want our authors to be treated rightly and fairly, and not taken advantage of anymore,” Druga said. It’s important to know, this isn’t a recent phenomenon; Druga claimed that the YouTube adaptations have been around almost as long as the subreddit itself.

Then, what is the right way to go about using an author’s work? “If you want to use an author’s work, the absolute first step is to contact them and ask…” Druga said, “…introduce themselves, their channel, and talk about WHY they want to use the story. Some authors will ask for compensation, some just want credit.” The last point is important. Druga emphasized that credit should always be given, even when you have written consent. It’s a good practice, and helps promote the author’s other works too.

With the numerous subreddits, the powerful protest, and the communities efforts, Druga hopes for the best, but says, “In a perfect world, when r/nosleep reopens on March 2, the word would have gotten out, people would have learned their lesson, and projects like the Sleepless Watchdogs will become unnecessary. But this isn’t a perfect world, and no one expects this problem to go away overnight. As long as r/nosleep stories are being used improperly and r/nosleep authors are treated unfairly, the community at large will stand by them and help.”

The NoSleep blackout will continue from midnight February 24 until midnight on March 2 (Eastern Standard Time). If you want to support authors, consider joining subreddits like Sleepless Watchdogs and the NoSleep Writers Guild, or just help get the word out.

In closing, Druga said, “The most important point I can make, and this is also a point of the protest, is that the authors deserve support and respect. So many people enjoy what they produce, and that’s amazing, but without the authors, you don’t have that content, the narrators don’t have that content, and the world is all around worse for it.”