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Im not hugely surprised since I saw the Scribd links appearing automatically next to PDF submissions here on HN. If they made it that easy to break copyright i
by ErrantX 17y ago
Im not hugely surprised since I saw the Scribd links appearing automatically next to PDF submissions here on HN.
If they made it that easy to break copyright it was only a matter of time before someone sued.
EDIT: I dont mean to say HN/pg are at fault - I just mean they were providing an API along the lines of scribd.com/scrape?url=[url of the pdf] (which is/was what was used here) which scraped and saved the document. That's just asking for trouble.
- jrockway 17y agoThat's just asking for trouble. Just like Google's cache is?
- newsdog 17y agoAh but Goggle is a big boy with lots of money. It's much easier to pick on a smaller opponent.
- slig 17y agoGoogle cache is a plus. Also, scribd show ads right next to every content that they don't own.
- jrockway 17y agoSo do ad-supported web browsers.
- slig 17y agoPeople still use ad-supported browsers?
- unalone 17y agoI do, because I like offering web sites I enjoy a chance to make money off me, and because I actually feel slightly empty when I go to a site designed around a Deck ad and don't see it. Tasteful ads make a web site look better.
- tedunangst 17y agoWeb sites are not the same as browsers.
- unalone 17y agoWhoops! My bad.
- seabee 17y agoSo does your TV, if you have it switched on next to your laptop. The real issue is where the content comes from. The browser doesn't provide a document - it's a dumb conduit for the page you're after. Whether you paid for your browser (Windows) or it's ad supported is irrelevant since it is itself incapable of copyright infringement. This isn't true of Scribd.
- jrockway 17y agoThis isn't true of Scribd. Why not? It's a PDF reader that you pay to use by looking at ads.