Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side • Hacker News Board

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#11

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 7:44 AM UTC

jackowayed wrote: post #9

michael_dorfman wrote: post #7

From the comments section: UPDATE! Evil Wylie contacted Scribd and successfully negotiated a resolution. Scribd now offers the option for an author to PERMANENTLY OPT ALL DOCUMENTS OUT of the "archives." This is effective immediately. This doesn't mean that what they did was right (although their terms and conditions allow them to basically do whatever), but they do respond to complaints rather swiftly.

Smart move by Scribd. Diffuse a lot of the "SCRIBD IS PURE EVIL!!!!!" complaints, but only a fraction of a percent of documents will get opted out, so the impact on their revenue is negligible.

[deleted]

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#12

Post by michael_dorfman » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 7:48 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #11

jackowayed wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smart move by Scribd. Diffuse a lot of the "SCRIBD IS PURE EVIL!!!!!" complaints, but only a fraction of a percent of documents will get opted out, so the impact on their revenue is negligible.

[deleted]

What complicates things, and makes them worse, is that a large amount of the content is uploaded by people who are not the original authors/publishers, and don't actually have the rights.

As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#13

Post by Confusion » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 8:06 AM UTC

Judson wrote: post #6

While I can for sure appreciate the Scribd service, charging for 24 hour access to "archives" is just silly. It reminds me of Rapidshare, which isn't exactly a brand to live up to. On the other hand. So does the website that posted the article and requires a login to read the follow-up. I like that someone called Scribed out and they fixed the situation.

Except that they didn't really fix anything, because almost no one knows Scribd distributes their content and hence hardly anyone will enable that setting.

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#14

Post by smartrly » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 8:17 AM UTC

michael_dorfman wrote: post #12

[deleted] wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

What complicates things, and makes them worse, is that a large amount of the content is uploaded by people who are not the original authors/publishers, and don't actually have the rights. As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

I agree completely.

The entire system appears designed to take advantage of the fact that users will upload just about anything, and the rights holders have to actively monitor the whole of the internet for each possible infraction to protect their rights.

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#15

Post by jogle » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 8:18 AM UTC

michael_dorfman wrote: post #12

[deleted] wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

What complicates things, and makes them worse, is that a large amount of the content is uploaded by people who are not the original authors/publishers, and don't actually have the rights. As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

Just last week I found a research paper I published while at Cornell on Scribd -- no attribution at all, no permissions, etc. It's a paper that in normal circulation costs $50 to purchase (and has been purchased a few thousand times -- whether $50 is reasonable or not is a discussion for another thread, of course).

I considered letting my editor know about it to see if she wanted me to request it be taken down, but then I figured I'd rather more people see the paper anyway so left it alone.

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#16

Post by smartrly » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 8:24 AM UTC

jogle wrote: post #15

michael_dorfman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What complicates things, and makes them worse, is that a large amount of the content is uploaded by people who are not the original authors/publishers, and don't actually have the rights. As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

Just last week I found a research paper I published while at Cornell on Scribd -- no attribution at all, no permissions, etc. It's a paper that in normal circulation costs $50 to purchase (and has been purchased a few thousand times -- whether $50 is reasonable or not is a discussion for another thread, of course). I considered letting my editor know about it to see if she wanted me to request it be taken down, but t…

The problem, of course, is that you should've been the one making the decision in the first place.

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#17

Post by mambodog » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 8:48 AM UTC

michael_dorfman wrote: post #12

[deleted] wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

What complicates things, and makes them worse, is that a large amount of the content is uploaded by people who are not the original authors/publishers, and don't actually have the rights. As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

So basically it's YouTube, but for documents.

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#18

Post by jules » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 8:52 AM UTC

Judson wrote: post #6

While I can for sure appreciate the Scribd service, charging for 24 hour access to "archives" is just silly. It reminds me of Rapidshare, which isn't exactly a brand to live up to. On the other hand. So does the website that posted the article and requires a login to read the follow-up. I like that someone called Scribed out and they fixed the situation.

What exactly do you like about Scribd? Every experience I had with is has been negative. Their reader sucks and to download a pdf you have to register. When somebody posts a link to Scribd I always end up searching for another place on the internet that has it. I don't see any value Scribd provides.

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#19

Post by rogeriopvl » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 9:55 AM UTC

mambodog wrote: post #17

michael_dorfman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What complicates things, and makes them worse, is that a large amount of the content is uploaded by people who are not the original authors/publishers, and don't actually have the rights. As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content.

As far as I can tell, Scribd's primary business model is monetizing pirated content. So basically it's YouTube, but for documents.

Yeah, but youtube doesn't charge you to watch the videos...

Re: Scribd.com Comes to the Dark Side

#20

Post by RyanMcGreal » Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 9:58 AM UTC

I clicked on the "UPDATE: Scribd Responds!" link, only to get a page with this message:

>You are attempting to access a resource on this site which is restricted. Please login below. After re-logging in, you will be automatically directed to the page you were attempting to access.