A Houston book author
has sued document-sharing site Scribd, alleging that the site "shamelessly profits from the stolen copyrighted works of innumerable authors."
The author, Elaine Scott, alleges that a copy
of her 1984 book "Stocks and Bonds" was uploaded to Scribd without her permission and then downloaded by other users 100 times. "I bring this complaint because I believe that just as it isn't right
for children to steal words, it isn't right for websites like Scribd.com to do it either," she said in her complaint, filed in federal district court in Texas. Scott is seeking class-action status.
As with separate cases against Google's YouTube, the complaint against Scribd essentially alleges that the company has built its business on pirated work. "Scribd reaps substantial direct and
financial benefit from copyright infringement," the complaint alleges. "Their misuse of copyrighted works attracts more users to their website, which in turn increases the advertising revenues."
Scribd, which is already facing a separate copyright infringement lawsuit in federal district court in California, said in a statement that Scott's case was without merit. The company also said it
complies with and "goes above and beyond" the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor provisions, which generally protect sites from liability based on users' copyright infringement as long as
the sites take down pirated material upon request.
Video site Veoh recently prevailed in a
similar copyright case after a judge found the site was protected by the safe harbor provisions.
Scott also alleges that the measures Scribd deploys to stem piracy in themselves violate her
copyright.
When Scribd learns that a particular document has been uploaded without authorization, the company allegedly maintains a copy of that document and then immediately removes any future
versions of that document, according to the complaint. Scott alleges that this system infringes her copyright.
"Ms. Scott did not give Scribd permission to make use of her work in their
copyright protection system. Even in their purported attempts to 'help' authors, Scribd continues to infringe for private gain," the complaint alleges.
But Scribd might have a valid fair use
defense to that allegation, said Internet law expert Venkat Balasubramani. Another company, Turnitin, has already prevailed in court with a similar argument. In that case, a federal district court
judge in Alexandria, Va. found that Turnitin did not infringe on students' copyrights by compiling
a database of term papers for a plagiarism detection service. The judge ruled that Turnitin did not violate the students' copyright because the company's storage and indexing of the students' work
constitutes fair use.
The law firm that is representing Scott recently defended alleged file-sharer Jammie Thomas in a lawsuit brought by the record industry. That case resulted in a jury
verdict ordering Thomas to pay $1.92 million, but it's not yet clear whether that award will be slashed by the court.