'YouTube for documents' sued for copyright infringement

Author Elaine Scott has filed a lawsuit which says that Scribd "shamelessly profits from the stolen copyrighted works of innumerable authors".

Scribd hosts digital documents and Scott found that one of her books was hosted there without her permission and without any payment being made to her.

She claimed in the suit that the Scribd website's own statistics showed that it had been downloaded more than 100 times.

US law allows facilitators of internet publishing to escape liability for copyright infringement if they had no role in creating the content, do not moderate it and if they take infringing material down as soon as they are notified about it.

Scribd chief executive has said in interviews quoted in Scott's law suit that the company does take copyright infringing material off the site when it is notified. Scott's suit says that the company should still be punished.

"They incorrectly believe that they are immune from liability," the suit says. "According to their view … a copyright holder must now devote substantial time to monitoring the content of innumerable websites and sending out takedown notices to receive protection from the law."

The suit asks the Court to assert that Scribd is not protected by that immunity and that it is a publisher and not just a service provider. It says this is the case because it can control what goes on the site and because it receives financial benefit, through advertising, that is related to the documents published.

Scribd has said that when a copyrighted work is removed from its site it is added to its database so that subsequent copies of that work can be recognised and removed without the author's involvement.

Scott claims this in itself is copyright infringement. "This system of infringement is presented as an example of how Scribd helps 'protect the rights of authors'," says her suit. "The copyright protection system is built and maintained without compensation to the authors of the works that provide the only real value for the copyright filter."

Scott's suit wants the court to award her damages and to prevent Scribd from "continuing to operate their website in a manner that promotes copyright infringement".

The suit also opens the possibility that other authors will join Scott and turn it into a class action, where many people in a similar situation join together in a single case. In a section outlining the potential for others to join it the suit calls Scribd the "YouTube for documents".