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Scribd
SlideShare is now a part of Scribd. These policies apply to content uploaded to both
Scribd and SlideShare. This page is intended as general information and is not legal
advice.
Policies
Does Scribd allow copyright infringements on Scribd and
SlideShare?
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No. Copyright infringement is illegal and not permitted under any circumstances.
Copyright
What is copyright?
Copyright is a form of protection granted by law to authors of original creative works. Copyright applies
to any creative expression including a book, photographs, artwork, writing, or recording. A copyright
guarantees that the author or rights holder determines who gets to copy, re-use, or alter the original
work. In the United States, an original work is under copyright protection from the moment it is created
and fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyrights can be held exclusively by the creator of the
original work, or shared via license with another entity, such as a publisher or agency.
The period for which a work remains under copyright varies from country to country. After a period of
time, copyrights revert to the public domain. Works in the public domain can be copied or reused
without restrictions. Some alternatives to full copyright have emerged in an attempt to add greater
flexibility to copyright licensing. The most flexible and widely-used alternative is Creative Commons.
Scribd provides uploaders the option of using Creative Commons licenses. Other alternatives to
copyright, such as copyleft and the GNU Public License, are also in use across the Internet but are not
supported on Scribd.
Scribd is based in the United States and complies with all domestic and international copyright laws.
What is copyright infringement?
Copyright infringement is the copying or re-use of a copyrighted work without permission of the rights
holder. Copyright infringement can include copying all or part of a protected work for any purpose, or
repurposing protected material in a derivative work. Copyright infringement, whether intentional or
accidental, is illegal in most countries. You can be held monetarily liable for copyright infringement any
time you upload copyrighted content without the rights holder’s permission, even when:
Scribd does not evaluate claims of fair use, and must rely on the direction of a judge or other appropriate
official. You may be liable for monetary damages if you use copyrighted work in a manner that is
determined by a court of law to not meet the standard of Fair Use.
Creative Commons licenses can only apply to original works, or works derived from other works in the
public domain or the Creative Commons. Any attempt to apply a Creative Commons license to another’s
copyrighted work is copyright infringement.
Under traditional copyright, no one may copy, re-use, build upon, or edit your work in any way without your
explicit permission.
CC BY lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they
credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered.
CC BY-SA lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they
credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to
“copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license,
so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended
for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
CC BY-NC lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new
works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works
on the same terms.
CC BY-NC-SA lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit
you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
CC BY-NC-ND is the most restrictive of the Creative Commons licenses, only allowing others to download
your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or
use them commercially.
Public domain
Public domain refers to creative works to which the copyright has expired or been voluntarily forfeited.
Copyright restrictions do not apply to works in the public domain. Content in the public domain can be
copied, altered, or repurposed by anyone, at any time.
The basic rule of thumb is, if you did not create a work yourself and you are unsure whether it is
copyrighted, then do not upload it.
You are the creator of content posted to Scribd without your permission
You are the duly authorized representative of the rights holder of content posted to Scribd without
permission
These requirements suggest that only rights holders are in a position to know where and how they have
authorized their works to appear, and whether they object to the presence of their content at a given
location. In compliance with the law, Scribd will only process notifications from rights holders or their
agents.
If you are concerned that a work on Scribd or SlideShare is not authorized by the copyright holder, please
contact the author or publisher directly so that they can take the necessary steps to request removal.
Many publishers provide special forms or email addresses on their websites for readers concerned about
possible infringements.
Google Alerts
Google alerts is a free service that will email you whenever an item that references certain keywords
are indexed by the Google search engine. This is the cheapest and simplest way to monitor for your
content on Scribd. Items uploaded to Scribd are usually indexed by Google within a few hours. To
receive a notification that an item has been indexed by Google:
Commercial Services
There are many commercial service providers that can help you monitor your intellectual property on the
internet. Some of these are:
For countries outside the US, the World Intellectual Property Organization provides a list of copyright-
related websites for countries around the world at http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/urls.jsp.
What is BookID?
BookID is Scribd’s automated copyright protection system. Scribd developed BookID to help safeguard
intellectual property on Scribd.com and in the Scribd mobile app.
How does BookID work?
BookID algorithmically analyzes computer-readable text for semantic data that it then encodes into a
digital "fingerprint.” BookID stores the fingerprints of known copyrighted works on a secure server that is
inaccessible to the Internet and the general public.
BookID scans every document uploaded to Scribd and removes those that have the same, or a
substantially similar, fingerprint. BookID intermittently scans the entire Scribd library to remove
matching content that was uploaded prior to fingerprinting. BookID’s approach reduces
misidentifications and enables the detection of infringing works even if they have been altered to some
degree.
it is uploaded directly to BookID by a verified author or publisher enrolled in the BookID for Authors
and Publishers Program;
it is added to Scribd’s subscription reading and listening service through a verified publisher or
distributor.
it is removed from Scribd pursuant to a DMCA notification.
BookID’s fingerprint scanner cannot detect specific keywords, titles, names, copyright notices, or other
disclaimers that are part of a document's text. In other words, BookID cannot be programmed to block all
documents that contain a book’s title. Likewise, BookID cannot translate different languages. If BookID
fingerprints an English-language document, it can only detect subsequent uploads that are also in
English.
BookID cannot detect images, illustrations, and sheet music at this time.
While the occasional false positives is inevitable, we continually tune BookID to reduce their occurrence.
Unfortunately, the high volume of fingerprints and uploads to Scribd prevent us from conducting manual
oversight or uploader notification prior to removing a match. If you have received a notification that your
work was removed by BookID and you feel the removal was improper, forward the notification that you
received to [email protected] along with an explanation of your concern. We will review each case as
quickly as possible.
If you believe that a DMCA notification sent to Scribd was in error, you must send Scribd a communication
that contains the following:
Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the
location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material
was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed
or disabled.
The subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber
consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is
located, or if the subscriber’s address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in
which Scribd may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person
who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber.
Scribd will forward your counter-notification to the original complainant. Scribd is not authorized to
mediate or adjudicate your dispute with the complainant.
Once the complainant receives your counter-notification, they can choose to resolve the issue with you
directly, voluntary rescind their complaint, or ignore your counter-notification. Scribd can then restore
the content to the site once the complainant rescinds their notification or if they ignore your counter-
notification for more than fourteen (14) days,
Counter-notifications can be sent by mail to:
Scribd, Inc.
Attn: Scribd DMCA copyright infringement notification
460 Bryant Street, #100
San Francisco, CA
94107-2594
USA
or fax to:
415.896.9896
Attn: Scribd DMCA copyright infringement notification
or email to:
[email protected]
Subject: Scribd DMCA copyright infringement notification
English (US)
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