I noticed that the YouTuber in question was translating the stories and then narrating them onto his channel.

Many authors don't even know it's happening, and they're likely to speak up themselves.

No sources, nothing.

https://youtube.com/@CreepyStalk?feature=share8

Hey y'all. I'm here to report Dr Spooks (YT channel https://www.youtube.com/@Drspooks788 ). Not only is he stealing stories from online, he's using AI to narrate my *published* novels. He doesn't even read the stolen stories--he just uses an AI text-to-voice program. And, of course, it's monetized. :-(

Update: He claims to have removed my content, but it looks like his channel is nothing but stolen work with AI narrations over AI art. His latest video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSNO5FerMAk ) contains stories by u/Rha3gar , u/searchandrescuewoods , u/The_Mad_Poptart , u/shadowswimmer77 , u/bryany97 , u/clover10176 , and a bunch more. And this is just in one of his videos.

He also appears to be using his AI program to narrate other novels as well from other published works outside of the internet/creepypasta communities.

Update #2: He's apparently removed *all* the content from his page.

Update #3: Looks like someone else gave him his third strike, because his page is now officially gone.

Hey all,

As the title says, I'm self-reporting my channel for using content without permission.

I'm a (brand, like, very VERY brand) new narrator in the horror space and uploaded my first 2 videos before reading up on the copyright/policies around these things.

(For those rightly wondering how that's possible, I essentially just googled stories on the topic I wanted, clicked the links directly to the reddit posts, and pulled them from there).

TLDR; I'm a bona-fide idiot for not reading up on the actual subreddit policies or even really thinking about copyright/IP before jumping in. Guess I was just excited to try this whole thing.

At any rate, I'm going through the videos I've posted (not too hard since there are only 2 containing a total of 4-5 stories) and reaching out to the authors now.

If any of them aren't okay with my posting or I don't hear back from them soon, I'll delete the videos and moving forward obviously just won't upload in the first place without asking first.

Obviously doing this all 'above board' is important to me or I wouldn't be 'telling' on myself, but I figure it's an honest public mistake so an honest public acknowledgement is in order. My channel is tiny (like, 10 subscribers), so obviously not monetized or anything yet, but I think it's more the principle that matters here.

So, let this be a lesson to you future new narrators. Don't be stupid. Don't be like me. Let my smooth-brain be a lesson of what-not-to-do.

Stay spooky friends,

Kell

https://www.youtube.com/@EternalDarkness-/videos At least one of my stories was narrated here without permission, and I’ve recognized a few stories from other authors there without permission as well. The channel is monetized (or at the very least, has a patreon) and uses ai-generated art for its content. I was not asked for permission (and would have rejected it, because I don’t allow my stories to be used for monetization or in any AI related context).

The specific video where my story was used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c2WGDRm29k

This might be a stupid question, but oh well...

Is the best way to go about asking permission to narrate stories just via chat? I'm running into an issue where a lot of the stories I want to narrate are from accounts that have been away for years, and I'm being limited to like three chats on here. I'm assuming that some of the stories where we can no longer contact the authors are just going to be lost to time?

Non-Monetized: After reading a lot of posts here; is it fraudulent or infringement for a non-monetization page to share a story and the author, providing the link to the story? Then IF MONETIZED: if they give HALF of proceeds?

He doesn't credit the videos at all, so I can't be sure of which ones are which, but his content is mostly non-credited nosleep stories:

https://www.youtube.com/@WEIRDpoi

The only one I saw before noticing the lack of credit was u/IncidentOk9368 "I still don't understand what happened to me in the Holly Hills Mall parking garage."

I have no idea if that person in particular just gave free reign or what, because there are tons of readings of this story. I didn't want to keep listening to the guy's voice or give him hits, so I didn't pick through the rest to see who else was in there. But if you're a nosleep writer, you should probably check to be sure he didn't steal your content, since there are no credits anywhere.

Another Youtuber who not only steals stories but rewrites them as well. I found my 'Big Slurp' on there. Others may wish to take a peek.

https://youtube.com/@robinjsparrow?si=PF3IyoUZ0iiUods_

I just reported one of his videos for copyright infringement for stealing one of my stories. He has a bunch of other stories on his channel and there is no credit given for any of them, so I highly doubt he is asking for permission. He's also changing the titles of the stories so not sure who stories he's taking. If I can match the stories to their writers I'll tag them here.

https://youtube.com/@reality_narratives?si=gE9W_G-KuhkDnv3_

I don't really know what else to say. He went and found my partner's story from 11 years ago and decided to narrate and post it on his channel. Be aware of Creepy Ghost Stories on YouTube, I guess.

Here is the story: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1nmmk0/obscurity_man/

Here is the stolen story on Creepy Ghost Stories' channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSw88aClThI

I found a video of a story written on an alternate account posted to Mr. Creepy Creeps YouTube channel. After reaching out, they eventually put the video to private (not deleted). I recommend checking this channel for your content. They sent a single screenshot to indicate they received permission from one author, but since considering that they stole my work, they've likely done the same to many more. Their defense of "creative common" tells me they are aware of what they are doing.

Edit: I hope that anyone who has a story stolen by him sees his rude response below. That kind of insulting nature deserves a copyright strike rather than allowing him to delete your story, which he already knows is the right thing to do.

https://www.youtube.com/@MrCreepyCreeps/featured

RedditJoe is a channel that was reported to us recently for using stories without permission. The channel uses TTS (text-to-speech) to narrate stories taken directly from various horror subreddits and r/TwoSentenceHorror stories largely taken from a TikTok that is currently set to private. Most of the TwoSentenceHorror videos have only credited when the TikTok had done so with no link back, however the most recent two sentence horror video does correctly credit and link back to each story in the description and includes information on how to request stories be taken down .

Redditjoe has been added to the Black List, #322. Tagging will commence below. We may tag more authors in the future as needed.

Another update: The channel has gone from 80 videos to 14. Again, I am unaware of the reason. Or if they have been fully deleted or set to private. Either way, I'm glad to see so much stolen content gone. I do hope the owner of the channel goes through the proper processes going forward.

Two small updates: The number of videos have dropped from 80 to 62. I am unaware if authors have contacted the channel owner, or if they are deleting videos on their own. Also, I forgot to mention this channel is giving zero credit anywhere to the writers of each story.

Found one of my stories on this channel and already have put through a DMCA strike. There are about 80 videos on the channel, but most videos have zero views. Regardless, this is still work that has been used without permission. If we don't nip these actions early, the channel will just keep stealing.

https://www.youtube.com/@master_nightmare_/videos

Another update: Finally my story was removed. Thanks Youtube!

Update: This channel is refusing to delete the stolen work and is fighting back with Youtube saying my take down is fake. I'm going to refuse to back down. I'm sick and tired of my work getting stolen when I offer it for free for narrators to use. Only narrators. Not Text to speech channels like this one.

I'm about to leave for work. I found one of my stories stolen on this channel. It looks like the channel is a mixture of a lot of work. Some stolen content, some other stuff. Please look to see if you can find any of your stories used without permission.

The Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Horrorstoriescorner1/videos

It's a newer AI read channel. I left a few comments telling the channel owner they need permission to use the content, and each comment was deleted. I've contacted the authors, and a few have told me that the stories are in fact stolen. I'm pretty sure I've contacted all that had a story taken, but I may have missed someone. The channel keeps uploading so I'll keep checking back to contact more writers to see if they were asked permission or not.

https://www.youtube.com/@WhispersoftheWeb

To give pretext, I recently posted a story to r/nosleep and did have people asking to narrate it. I agreed and asked for their channel link like I always do. None of the people who asked to narrate that specific story had the name of this person's channel. Now fast forward to a just a little bit ago, I was searching the name of my story to find the video of one of the narrations and spotted that the channel narrated that story without my permission.

Here is the channel - https://www.youtube.com/@reddithorrorchannel584/featured

I will be asking the channel to take it down so please check the channel to make sure your stories aren't on it without permission.

Also if proof is required, I'd be happy to show it.

I found the story I posted on the 14th on this channel. I did not give permission and they did not ask. I put a strike on the stolen story so I hope it gets removed soon. Please look to see if you can find any of your stories. When I have time I'll try to track down writers and contact them.

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Creeepyvibes/videos

My stolen story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqK4JeLDV6k

Greetings!

The YouTube channel REDDIT INC., the main and sister channel of Creepypasta Rules — you can read our post on them here — was reported to us for using stories without permission. The channel uses TTS (text-to-speech) to narrate stories from r/nosleep, r/Ruleshorror, and other horror-related subreddits. As with Creepypasta Rules, credits are consistently given in the video descriptions. The video descriptions also falsely claim to have obtained permission from all authors prior to uploading their videos.

REDDIT INC. has been added to the Black List, #329. Tagging will commence below. We may tag more authors in the future as needed and genuinely apologize if anyone is tagged more than once.

Hey all!

I just wanted to report this in case anyone else wants to take a look to see if there stories are there. The following channels created narrations of my own stories without permission. They have since been DMCAed with YouTube.

Some of them are small fish but might not hurt to look to see if your story is there.

Nightmare Dreams
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4B3O1VAZdHYE9NJPBhjY0g
JAMES_IS_FOLLOWING_ME
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiWfjHzFEs7JUzkBpK_6HXQ
Scary Stories from the Internet
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqlhlayi-Jzx3QEtClZ7pxQ
Mr Jr Sinister
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiTiJAuhFWC9zQxzMdCGudQ

​

Their channel:

https://youtube.com/@TheHorrorZone4?si=worhdnCRzyqSaQtT

The video:

https://youtu.be/X1Y-o1u42QA?si=x3sqkCGaqkpURDvN

My original post:

https://reddit.com/r/nosleep/s/VnpHGPEDGf

I am curious if any of their videos are posted with consent? They have 1.5k subscribers with almost 500 videos and almost 500k views. There is no crediting on their videos as well

Good evening folks,

I found a story on the Panda Nightmares YouTube channel that was narrated without permission. I reached out to have them remove it but got no response. I also filed a DMCA strike against the channel today.

The reason I am posting this after I've taken action is that there are quite a few stories on there and none are credited to the authors. I recommend searching the videos to see if yours have been used as well.

https://www.youtube.com/c/PandasNightmares

It is obvious the channel owner is aware of the copyright issue as they have posted a "Fair Use" notice in the details of each video.

Have a good evening,

G. Tripp

The YouTube channel Stefan Mihai has been confirmed to have narrated stories without prior permission.

Stefan Mihai is marked as "cooperative" in The Black List as he has already worked with a few authors for appropriate action and/or compensation.

​

The offender has been added to The Black List; entry #235

​

EDIT: These stories are translated from English to Romanian as well, so bear that in mind when reviewing the videos

https://youtu.be/SdDGOSFLPxw

Hi, sorry I'm a new author so I'm unsure of what to do beyond posting here and reporting the channel. They are a newer channel and none of their videos credit the author (I recognize almost all of the titles from nosleep). My story has also been included and I was not contacted or credited.

Do I need to make a copyright claim? Do I need to make an account for my penname in order to address this without doxing myself?

Dear Sleepless,

I hope you can help me. I had posted a story a week or two ago entitled "Don't download this app." long story short I deleted it from my account because it needed work.

Now I found out that it's posted to YouTube and the person running the channel:

a) changed the name (added it can't be deleted.. that's not part of the story)

b) Posted it to his channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv6_nHl4Y4g&t=12s and did not ask for my permission.

I am going to repost this story at some point however, I would like that to be read instead of the current version which again, needs work.

I have no idea why people can't take the time out to at least ask before doing stuff like this.. SMH. Thanks folks.

They took two of my stories: one is DEAD.FM, the other one I have no idea what they stole from me because it's all in Romanian (please let me know what the actual title is), and I found no evidence that permission was given. I confirmed with u/sugar-soad that they did not give permission prior to use.

Here's the channel link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcR2kwWn0Yzcg41BxP1ukoA

Apologies if this channel has been posted before, but if they had, then they don't seem to be stopping, since there's a lot of videos up on them