Infinite Path

The social publishing website, Scribd, has been forced to defend itself after an American author accused the site of profiting “shamelessly” from the “stolen copyrighted works of innumerable authors”. The move is the latest in a long line of controversial debates concerning the right to share content, and specifically books, online.

Elaine Scott, the author in question, filed a 22-page complaint against the website after she found that a copy of one of her books had been uploaded illegally. Scribd allows users to upload documents of all kinds, including academic works, and actively encourages the sharing of information.

It has attracted nearly $13 million in funding and has been involved in a deal with Simon & Schuster, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, but Scott remains unhappy that the success of their service is apparently built upon copyright infringement “on a global scale”.

Scribd, which has previously come under heavy criticism from high-profile authors including JK Rowling, has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately after it emerged that a copy of Dan Brown’s hotly anticipated new novel was made available on the site. It was, of course, quickly taken down (although this process can take hours or even days to complete) but it would appear that the company needs to crack down on users who upload copyright files to the site in the first place.

The company’s defence, in which they state that they comply with regulations and have no desire to publish content against the wishes of those who created it, has not been enough to calm Elaine Scott down. The author believes that even the process used to filter copyrighted material is a breach of copyright, so it would seem that the company simply cannot win in this scenario.