Yesterday a British newspaper discovered pirated copies of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Ken Follett’s World without End on the popular file-sharing site, Scribd, stoking fears of digital piracy.
As GalleyCat reported months ago, Scribd has a takedown notice procedure in accordance with the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and budding partnerships with a number of publishers. Still, policing the site’s 55 million readers is a never-ending task.
The article concluded with comments Penguin CEO John Makinson, who said his company does not use Scribd: “We do have a concern about the amount of free content on the web, and the impact that will have on the consumer’s perception of the value of books.”