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Authors fight Scribd piracy

01.01.70 | Philip Jones

Publishers and agents representing the authors J K Rowling and Ken Follett want to get free copies of their novels removed from the 'social publishing' website Scribd, reports the Times. The Times found copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Ken Follett’s most recent novel World without End among manytitles, raising fears that the piracy affecting the music industry may have spread to books.

Neil Blair, Rowling’s lawyer at the Christopher Little literary agency, said that Scribd did not have permission "and what you have identified are infringing listings which we were aware of and actioning". Follett’s publisher, Macmillan, was unware that World without End had been uploaded on to the Scribd website for more than five months, and had been read more than 500 times there. Macmillan said it was "now looking into this".

Tammy Nam, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Scribd, says that it operates a "notice and takedown system", where it removes books if their publishers demand it.

Tthe company is also testing book giveaways with some American publishers, including Random House.

• digitisation
• Philip Jones
• piracy
• Scribd