Plagarism on Scribd.com

As a published author, it's always disconcerting to find my published materials posted online. Here's an email I recently sent to a site (http://www.scribd.com/) that had several pages of one of my books posted...and the reply. Why is it 1000 times harder to have it removed than it is to post it---and once removed, it can be put back up in the blink of an eye...

Someone has copied some pages from my book

Learn to Program with Visual Basic Examples

and placed it on your site---would you please remove it?

Here's the link to it

http://www.scribd.com/doc/5634529/How-to-create-MS-Access-as-backend-database-for-VB-application

John Smiley

Here's their response...

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Thanks for contacting the Copyright Department at Scribd.

Scribd is a self-publishing platform that enables users from around the world to publish and/or read written works, documents, and rich content over the Internet. Scribd takes the rights of intellectual property owners very seriously and complies as a service provider with all applicable provisions of the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") of 1998. We expeditiously remove infringing material and terminate repeat infringers when appropriate.

I sincerely regret that one of our users posted your content to Scribd without your authorization.

Your email was very clear, but it's missing some elements that would allow me to accept it as an "authorized statement" under specific legal criteria established by the DMCA.

To avoid making this any more tedious than it has to be, I've attached a template of a valid DMCA request below. The information in this template is the absolute minimum that we can accept under United States law. Simply substitute everything in [brackets] with the necessary information. Then send the request back to me, and I'll remove the infringing content as soon as possible.

Remember, your DMCA request is a legal document. You must include your FULL mailing address and phone number along with a valid email address. We are unable to remove content based on email addresses alone.

Your takedown request must include a direct link (URL) to each and every infringing document that you want us to remove. We cannot remove documents based on keywords, search terms, title, author name, cover design, or resemblance (physical or otherwise) to another document.

There are absolutely NO EXCEPTIONS to these legal requirements, regardless of your country of origin.

Your DMCA request can only apply to infringing documents on Scribd.com up to the date of the request. Your DMCA request does not cover possible future infringements. Most documents on Scribd are indexed by Google within 24 hours, so a Google Alert is an excellent way of finding out - usually within minutes - if your work has been posted on Scribd or another site.

Thanks for your understanding.

Please contact me if you have any further questions.Jason Bentleyjason@scribd.com***

========== BEGIN SAMPLE DMCA TAKEDOWN NOTICE ==========

Attn: Jason Bentley, Scribd.com,
Pursuant to 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A), this communication serves as a statement that:

(1). I am [the exclusive rights holder the duly authorized representative of the exclusive rights holder] for [title of copyrighted material being infringed upon, along with any identifying material such as ISBNs, publication dates, etc -- or, if the material is a web page, the URL];

(2). These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the following URL(s): [URLs of infringing material];

(3) I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder's agent, or the law;

(4) Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question;

(5) I may be contacted by the following methods (include all): [physical address, telephone number, and email address];I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you for your kind cooperation.

Regards,[your full legal name]

========== END SAMPLE DMCA TAKEDOWN NOTICE ==========