Scribd is intended to be a gathering place for a community of authors and readers. All communities have standards, and Scribd is no exception. Though we want to encourage frank and lively conversation on Scribd, we expect you to be responsible and respectful of other members.

If you violate these rules, your account may be terminated, your content may be deleted from Scribd and you won't be allowed to create a new Scribd account. If you'd like more detail, you can find a list of activities that are prohibited on Scribd in our General Terms of Use.

Advertising & Promotional Material

Not all advertising is prohibited on Scribd, but we do have some very firm restrictions. These rules apply to everything you share on Scribd, not just documents, including your scribbles, comments, and even your profile information.

What isn't permitted?

• You may not sell access to the Scribd website.
• You may not sell access to Scribd's related services (such as the embeddable document reader) on another website without prior agreement from Scribd.
• You may not use Scribd or its related services (such as the embeddable document reader) for the primary purpose of gaining advertising or subscription revenue.
• You may not publish or link to anything that promotes or facilitates the following:
  • illegal services or products;
  • sexual services or products;
  • piracy of movies, software, or any other kind of media;
  • online pharmacies or health products;
  • affiliate marketing topics;
  • search engine optimization;
  • malicious sites that either try to harm users in some way or are about harming them.
• You may not place advertisements or links in ways that could deceive or confuse users. This includes, but isn't limited to:
  • ads that appear to be noncommercial scribbles;
  • links in documents that cover entire pages, so that the pages cannot be clicked on without following the links;
  • links in documents from URL-shortening services such as bit.ly or TinyURL;
  • e-books that are part of overt or covert sales operations—often known as “private label rights” (PLR), “master resell rights” (MRR), or “resell rights” (RR) ebooks.
• You may not use the Scribd website, its related services (such as the embeddable document reader) or resources, or any member's content with the effect of competing with or displacing the market for Scribd (as determined solely by Scribd).

What is permitted?

• You're welcome to publish your own original advertisements or other content to promote your own business or artistic endeavor, provided your primary purpose isn't to gain advertising or subscription revenue. For example, you can publish your garage sale flyer and your hardware company's product catalog.
• You may publish parodies or satires of advertisements.
• You may also publish advertisements that serve as illustration or supporting material for an original work, such as a term paper or business plan.

Copyrighted Material & Public Domain Content

Copyright is designed to protect someone's work from theft. Generally speaking, whenever you write something original, what you write is automatically and implicitly copyrighted; under US law you don't need to register your work for it to be protected. Copyright can apply to many different kinds of works, including but not limited to music, song lyrics, poems, novels, technical books and movies.

Scribd cannot—and will not—provide legal advice pertaining to the copyright status of a particular document. You are responsible for knowing the copyright status of your content and whether its copyright license permits re-distribution via the web BEFORE you upload it to Scribd.

If you'd like to know more, the United States Copyright Office has a wealth of information about copyright, including guides and factsheets, relevant US laws, and answers to frequently asked questions.

What isn't permitted?

If you share copyrighted material without the permission of the person who holds the copyright, that's called copyright infringement and it's against the law. You may not use Scribd to share such material.

• You may not publish a document on Scribd if you don't own its copyright (or have permission from the person who owns its copyright).
• You may not use Scribd to offer or request copyrighted material if you don't own the copyright to the material (or have permission from the person who owns its copyright).
• You may not sell works that are in the public domain. Wikipedia has an informative article about the public domain. Though it's legal to charge for such works, it's not allowed on Scribd.
• You may not copy somebody else's work from Scribd and sell or share it as your own, unless that person gave you explicit permission to do so.

What is permitted?

• You may publish your own original works on Scribd. If you're an approved seller, you can also sell your original works in addition to offering them for free.
• Though you may not sell public domain works on Scribd, you're welcome to publish them on Scribd as free documents.

Other Illegal and Irresponsible Activities

While we encourage frank and lively conversation on Scribd, we expect you to be responsible and respectful of other members.

What isn't permitted?

• You may not harass or threaten other Scribd members.
• You may not publish or post hate speech on Scribd.
• You may not impersonate another person, whether they are a member of Scribd or not.
• You may not post or link to any pornography or explicit sexual content on Scribd. This includes but is not limited to:
  • pornographic images and images of sexual situations, in any form whatsoever;
  • documents that describe explicit sexual situations with the intent to excite or titillate readers.
• You may not publish anything simply for its shock value, including but not limited to gratuitous depictions of or discussions about sex or violence.
• You may not publish private information belonging to another person. This includes but is not limited to:
  • residential, postal or email addresses;
  • credit card data or any other financial information;
  • social security numbers, telephone numbers;
  • photos.
• You may not publish or post content on Scribd that is illegal to publish in the United States of America.

What is permitted?

• We believe in your right to express unpopular points of view. You may engage in respectful discussions about controversial topics, even those related to sexuality, religion, and politics.
• You're welcome to publish your own contact information—email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers—if you want to.