4 ms·
Here's the story. A middle-size publisher contacted me about the problem they had: someone was distributing their PDFs online using various services, but mainly
by hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
Here's the story. A middle-size publisher contacted me about the problem they had: someone was distributing their PDFs online using various services, but mainly Scribd. At that time (it was maybe 2012?) it worked like this: the attacker released a document, notified his group, and they started downloading. The publisher immediately filed the DMCA copyright infringement notification and it was handled within 3-4 days - more than enough for people to download the "release". It was going on for a long time and Scribd refused to remove the account of the attacker.[0] After a couple of months they finally gave in and deleted it but of course a new account was immediately created. It was not a mouse-and-cat game, but more like mouse-and-turtle.
So when they asked my help I told them, you don't have a copyright problem, you have a SEO problem - since people looking for their publications could find them easily online with the stolen copies sometimes appearing higher on SERP than their own. They said they would address that and they somehow came to terms with the fact that the past documents are lost, but they would like to avoid this situation in the future.
I checked some of their publications. They were moderately priced and the content was quite interesting. Many of their customers were very supportive - actually they were sending reports when they noticed the pirated copies. And they weren't saying "Why should I pay for your books when I can get them online?" but rather "Please take care of protecting your content since we want you to survive and publish more books". So, to answer your question, I was very happy to work for them, and I would do it again.
[0] I was told they changed their approach later and started to collaborate with publishers.
- barry-cotter 5y ago> someone was distributing their PDFs online using various services, but mainly Scribd Ah, Scribd, the scummiest company YC has ever had any connection with.
- onphonenow 5y agoSo many dark patterns on that site
- SpelingBeeChamp 5y agoWhat are they tricking users into doing?