Scribd Store June 29, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in download, ebook, scribd, store.add a comment
I’ve just noticed that Scribd offers a paid download service in a similar manner to iTunes. I’ve been a fan of Scribd for a fair while now. The main reasons are:
- It allows you to embed articles in a blog which are well formatted and more magazine-like.
- It gives me a real sense of how popular (or unpopular) my articles are, because Scribd has a social networking element whereby users can add your documents to their favourites, and say whether or not they like them or not.
- It’s another way of letting people access my writing.
I think the store holds a lot of promise. I remember when Metal Gear Solid 4 was being released last year, and I really wanted it, but couldn’t justify the cost. So my scheme was to get the game on the release date, and quickly create a walk-through guide, which I would somehow sell….
What ultimately put me off was the sticky issue of copyright. My walk-through guide would’ve been pretty hopeless without screenshots, and other images, which were protected by copyright. It might’ve been permissible if I just posted it on my blog, but I was trying to make money from it, so obviously this wasn’t an option.
Scribd would’ve been appealing, especially since I could’ve made money from downloads. But if I’d posted the walk-through guide, along with the images, then it would’ve been breaking the law.
I know about issues of copyright, but only because I’ve researched it; another person mightn’t be quite so aware. This is my main point: how will such a system work? Does existing copyright make it untenable?
I believe it will work for authors, and it could work exceedingly well. But for creators of graphic works, which either reference or use existing works, the result is a legal mess.
I will watch what happens with keen interest.
In Praise of the Internet Archive June 19, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in blogging, creative commons, flickr, internet archive, scribd.add a comment
1. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons
2. Attribution-NonCommercial Creative Commons
3. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
4. Attribution Creative Commons
5. Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons
6. Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons
I generally issue my own work under the second license. This is largely because I’m an amateur writer, and seeming as I don’t rely on it to make a living, I’m happy for people to share it as freely as they like. But what if my work was to receive a sudden surge in popularity (bear with me!)? Then I’d be more inclined to protect my work, and perhaps I’d change the license. All services I have encountered allow users to do this. But this is quite problematic. What if somebody else has used my work in a way that they considered fair use? When the license change takes effect, they are in a grey area. I’m sure that if you could prove that the source work originally allowed derivatives then you’d be OK. But this is only possible by winding back the clock. Fortunately, this is what the Internet Archive allows you to do. Without such a service there would be bedlam, with every license change potentially having considerable knock on effects for derivative works. So, far from the Internet Archive being something for the future, it has very real relevance now, and its a larger player in the Creative Commons revolution than people give it credit for.
_____________________________________
References:
Internet Archive
Scribd:
In Praise of the Internet Archive
A Guide to Scribd June 7, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in scribd.add a comment
There are a few features of the embedded Scribd documents that aren’t immediately obvious, so I thought I’d highlight them.
1. Opens the document in the Scribd site, where it can be downloaded in its original format (in my case, mostly pdfs).
2. The view mode can be changed to suit personal preference. I find the book mode much more comfortable.
3. Enter full screen mode.
10 Steps to Self Publishing Success May 23, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in LaTex, book, publishing, publishing on demand, scribd.add a comment
Here’s my most recent article. It was a royal pain to upload for some strange reason, but nevertheless here it is!
Create beautiful documents April 21, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in LaTex, ebook, pdf, scribd.add a comment
I’ve recently discovered two great tools for creating and sharing beautiful documents. Firstly, there’s LaTex, which is widely used within the scientific and engineering communities to create documents which are clearly and logically set out. It’s a way to avoid all of those irksome errors which can occur when using a word processor, such as different fonts and font sizes being used where they shouldn’t. LaTex takes complete control over the entire type setting process, and in this case I decided to create my previous blog post as a pdf in order to illustrate its use. As you can see, the results are far superior to what can usually be achieved with a word processor. It’s particularly useful for authors of ebooks who can use LaTex to create professional looking documents.
The second tool is Scribd. The easiest way to think of it is as YouTube for documents. It allows you to upload image and document files, and then subsequently share them, either through the thriving community on their website, or by embedding them in your own blog. I can personally vouch for how useful this is – Blogger has no such facility for displaying pdfs, and I’ve previously had to resort to hosting services such as Rapidshare, but I’ve found that people are put off when they click on a link and are sent to an entirely different website. The beauty of Scribd is that along with the embedded document are some fairly sophisticated tools, the like of which you’d expect from a stand alone pdf viewer.
So while LaTex is pretty niche, I expect Scribd to rapidly increase in popularity, especially given the ease of sharing documents – uploading and embedding the files takes two minutes maximum. So get out there and start creating some documents!
