Author Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Scribd

Alleges online book database engages in copyright infringement

By Jon Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 21, 2009

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An American author has filed a class action lawsuit against Scribd, accusing the online book database of profiting off pervasive copyright infringement, and demanding damages and an injunction.

The complaint says that plaintiff Elaine Scott was searching Scribd's database in July when she discovered that "Stocks and Bonds: Profits and Losses," a work she wrote in 1984 and copyrighted in 1985, had already been downloaded over 100 times. Scott wrote a letter requesting that Scribd take her work down immediately; apparently unsatisfied, she subsequently filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Scott's complaint alleges that the website "shamelessly profits from the stolen copyrighted works of innumerable authors." The action accuses Scribd of "creat[ing] a system whereby any user in the world can upload copyrighted works without permission" and "misappropriat[ing] copyrighted works for its copyright protection system."

Scribd says that Scott's lawsuit is "without merit," noting that it takes down any copyrighted works to which it is alerted, as required by the Digital Millennium Copyrighting Act (DMCA). That act, passed in 1998, includes stepped-up penalties for online copyright infringement.

Scribd claims immunity under the statute's "safe harbor" provision, which exempts from liability companies that remove copyrighted works after being alerted of their existence.

Scott counters that Scribd is a publisher, not a "service provider" as defined by the DMCA. The suit further alleges that Scribd receives a direct monetary benefit from the upload of copyrighted works. A Scribd official said the company does not charges authors who want to have their works included in Scribd's "copyright management system," which stores copyrighted works and, thereafter, prevents their upload to the system by other users. The system's terms of use state that Scribd has no control over what is initially uploaded to the system.

Scott says that Scribd unfairly puts the burden of preventing illegal downloads on the copyright holder. "According to their [Scribd's] view," the complaint says, "a copyright holder must now devote substantial time to monitoring the content of innumerable websites and sending out takedown notices" when necessary.

The suit also says that Scribd's copyright management system is a violation in and of itself. Scott argues that once a work has been illegally downloaded, the copyright infringement is "ongoing and permanent," regardless of whether the work is still available to the public. The mere act of storing the work in Scribd's databases in an infringement, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit follows criticism of a recently-announced settlement in the Google Books lawsuit, which similarly dealt with copyright infringement by a large online book database. The cases show the increasing confusion over how to best regulate vast online sources of hard-copy information.

Indeed, Scribd is a major player in the online book world. Scott's lawsuit notes that Scribd is the world's "50th or 60th largest" website, larger than the New York Times, and that many descibe it as the "YouTube for documents." Around 50,000 documents are uploaded daily to Scribd.

The action is brought on behalf of Scott and "every author who owns a valid, registered copyright in a work infringed by Scribd."

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