When originally signing the Terms of Service for HubPages, authors were led to believe that they had ownership of their content generated for HubPages and their niche sites. However, The Arena Group quietly included this in their own Terms of Service that cannot be found on HubPages:

“By posting, uploading, or otherwise submitting content to the HubPages Services, you grant HubPages (and its successors, assigns, licensees, and affiliates, including without limitation The Arena Group) a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform your Content in connection with the HubPages Services and HubPages’s (and its successors’, assigns’, licensees’, and affiliates’, including without limitation The Arena Group’s) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the HubPages Services (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.”

Essentially, authors and their content were quietly subjugated by HubPages and The Arena Group after TAG's acquisition of the HubPages platform and its associated niche sites with all of their content. 

Though many authors hold it to be self-evident that they hold the rights to their content, it would appear that The Arena Group in conjunction with HubPages have tried to silently do away with those rights in favor of reproducing and republishing content to their own directly managed properties. Furthermore, their terms of service require arbitration before any legal matters can go forward, and the process made out to be as painful for original content owners as is possible. 

HubPages authors who have found their content stolen feel like they have been abused, ignored, and ultimately betrayed by The Arena Group. Nonetheless, they are actively seeking comment and recourse with the company, and would prefer a mutually beneficial relationship.