I don't think anybody throws out Moroder... his stuff is brilliant - from "The Chase" to "The NeverEnding Story" to the haunting "Blood From A Stone" from his "Metropolis" soundtrack. Love him. A lot of electronic musicians have given Moroder his due - but it's true, he's largely unknown on the dancefloor.

It's worth noting that the illustrations in Chapter 8 are by Mad Magazine legend and Scholastic mainstay Sam Viviano. Viviano is most well known for the many movie parodies he did for Mad.

There's a good Wikipedia article about him.

@vjinterkosmos - the website makes it pretty clear the money comes from Scribd running ads alongside the scanned documents. So if you can't tell where the money comes in, don't forget to factor in poor research skills. ;-)

That's http://scribd.com/paper

Hey, folks - it's Jason Bentley, I'm the community director at Scribd. The scanning service offer is 100% real. Check out http://scribd.com/paper.

It's bad timing, not a bad joke.

Todd at #4: The filter works by building a semantic map of a copyrighted work in toto, and does not reject uploads unless a significant match is found. Reasonable fair use and quotations are allowed for in the system.

Bob W: Scribd is not monitoring violations this way. Scribd is going by the book: we still require formal DMCA notices by sworn representatives before we remove content.

While we appreciate the efforts of our community to police themselves, such efforts, whether out of genuine concern or 'vigilante samaritanism,' leave the door wide open to widespread abuse. We've already received a number of complaints from users about their documents being added inappropriately to these groups, assuming it was our doing. Such complaints are evaluated and corrective action is taken pursuant to our abuse policy.

We have responded directly to Milton Thales regarding this matter.

#150: I'm sorry, but there are items in your comment that simply aren't true. Scribd, to date, has bent over backward to make it easy for copyright holders to request removal of infringed content. We do not, nor have we ever, required a full-text DMCA removal for every single item. We have always accepted one DMCA notification with an unlimited number of linked infringement claims as a valid request. We have always given the benefit of the doubt to the copyright claimant, which is precisely what led us to accept and implement the SFWA's scorched-earth takedown request in the first place.

Both yours and Jerry Pournelle's accounts of your experiences with Scribd are not based in reality. In fact, Pournelle displayed his great facility for Science Fiction on his blog by describing Scribd's copyright process as onerous and unresponsive a full day before he bothered to file his DMCA notice. His request was immediately fulfilled.

Scribd's copyright process is otherwise universally described as courteous and expedient from the site's supporters and detractors alike. Those who would discredit Scribd are best armed with facts, but the facts in this case are clearly on Scribd's side.

Jason Bentley
Director of Community Development @ Scribd
jason at scribd dot com

Scribd's official response:

September 1, 2007

Dr. Andrew Burt
Vice-President
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.

Dear Dr. Burt:

I am an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). I write today as legal counsel representing Scribd.com. If SFWA is represented by counsel in connection with the matter discussed below, please let me know so that I may direct future correspondence accordingly.

On August 17, 2007, you sent an email to Scribd.com on behalf of SFWA alleging that numerous items hosted on Scribd.com allegedly infringed the copyrights of authors who you claimed to represent. On August 27, 2007, you confirmed in another email that your earlier communication was intended as a formal notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

We have now heard from no fewer than four authors whose works were improperly targeted by your notice. They confirm that they have never authorized SFWA to act as their DMCA enforcement agent. As a result, it appears that your notice constituted a misrepresentation both of your authority to act on their behalf and that the targeted materials were infringing.

Scribd.com takes its copyright responsibilities seriously and complies in every particular with the requirements of the DMCA. Upon receipt of a compliant DMCA takedown notice, Scribd.com acts to promptly remove any materials uploaded by its users. But Scribd.com does not take lightly your apparently careless invocation of the DMCA to remove content without any valid justification.

I understand and appreciate that SFWA has taken steps to apologize to Scribd.com users whose materials were improperly removed as a result of your notice. This letter is intended to prevent any repetition of these unfortunate events. While we will continue to consider valid DMCA takedown notices sent on behalf of rightsholders who you are authorized to represent, this letter puts you on notice than any further takedown notices that contain misrepresentations may expose you and SFWA to liability (including attorneys fees) pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 512(f). This would include not only notices that misrepresent about your authority to act on behalf of rightsholders, but also any notices that target activities (such as the inclusion of small excerpts of copyrighted material within larger original works) that are plainly noninfringing fair uses. See Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Inc., 337 F.Supp.2d 1195, 1204 (N.D. Cal. 2004) (imposing liability for sending DMCA takedown notices targeting obvious fair uses).[1]

Moreover, none of your recent communications have been in compliance with the requirements of the DMCA. As you should know, the DMCA requires that a takedown notice be in writing and include each of the following pieces of information:

(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.

(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.

(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.

(v) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

See 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3)(A).

Your recent communications conspicuously fail to meet several of these requirements, including the lack of a statement under penalty of perjury that you are acting with the authority of the copyright owner and any identification of the work you allege is being infringed. In addition, the law requires that all of these elements must appear in a single communication, rather than spread across numerous email messages. See Perfect 10, Inc. v. CCBill LLC, 488 F.3d 1102, 1113 (9th Cir. 2007).

You may wish to review the most recent ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the DMCA, which presciently predicted the harm Scribd.com users appear to have suffered as a result of your noncompliant notices:

In order to substantially comply with 512(c)(3)s requirements, a notification must do more than identify infringing files. The DMCA requires a complainant to declare, under penalty of perjury, that he is authorized to represent the copyright holder, and that he has a good-faith belief that the use is infringing. This requirement is not superfluous. Accusations of alleged infringement have drastic consequences: A user could have content removed, or may have his access terminated entirely. If the content infringes, justice has been done. But if it does not, speech protected under the First Amendment could be removed. We therefore do not require a service provider to start potentially invasive proceedings if the complainant is unwilling to state under penalty of perjury that he is an authorized representative of the copyright owner, and that he has a good-faith belief that the material is unlicensed.

See Perfect 10, Inc. v. CCBill LLC, 488 F.3d at 1112 (emphasis added).

The law clearly entitles Scribd.com to ignore noncompliant DMCA notices entirely. See 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3)(b)(ii). Consequently, by failing to meet the requirements of the statute, you run the risk that your notices will be rejected in their entirety (including any legitimate allegations of infringement that they may include), an outcome that would be unfortunate for the rightsholders SFWA represents.

We trust that, in light of this incident, any future DMCA notices sent by SFWA shall substantially comply with all the requirements set forth in the statute.

Sincerely,

Fred von Lohmann
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
fred@eff.org
(415) 436-9333 x123