Scribd Help Center

Prohibited Activity and Content

Article author
Jason
  • Updated

This notice is formerly known as the Prohibited Use Policy.

Scribd is home to a diverse community of authors, publishers, and readers. All communities have standards, and Scribd is no exception. It is our goal to create a place where anyone can read or listen to books in a comfortable and safe environment, whether on Scribd.com or with the Scribd app.

We have developed rules that govern content that our members upload and publish on Scribd. Content that does not adhere to these rules can be removed at any time without notice. Scribd can, at any time, disable the accounts of users that violate Scribd's Terms of Use, the General Uploader Agreement, or these rules; and/or fail to remediate violating activity upon notification.

Illegal and unlawful activities are strictly prohibited. Scribd cooperates, as appropriate, with law enforcement investigations into unlawful activity.

General harassment notice

Scribd strictly prohibits the use of any element of the Scribd platform, including titles, descriptions, books, audiobooks, and documents in a manner that tends to defame, harass, abuse, threaten, or cruelly denigrate others. Scribd strictly prohibits activity that is intended to, or tends to, promote hatred, bigotry, or harm toward others. Scribd reserves the right to determine which contents and site activity are abusive.

Activity restrictions

Scribd will take appropriate punitive action, up to and including deletion, once a member's account is determined to egregiously violate Scribd's policies; or when a member repeatedly violates a policy or restriction once notified.

When creating a Scribd account, either via the Scribd.com or the Scribd app, you agree that you will not:

  • create an account, or multiple accounts, that targets others for harassment or embarrassment;
  • create an account, or multiple accounts, that is solely intended to, or tends to, expose personal information about a living person;
  • create an account, or multiple accounts, with lewd, vulgar, obscene, or offensive profile names (usernames), profile descriptions, or profile photos;
  • create an account, or multiple accounts, that facilitates the operation of a script, bot, spider, scraper, or other automation; 
  • create an account, or multiple accounts, that is intended to, or tends to, mislead consumers of the content uploaded to the account;
  • create an account, or multiple accounts, that is intended to thwart a previous ban or suspension;
  • create duplicative accounts, either through manual or automated processes;
  • post your account information, or any Scribd member's account information, to a public website;
  • impersonate another living person, whether they are a member of Scribd or not; or impersonate a group or organization in a misleading or deceptive manner;
  • falsely claim an affiliation with any person or entity;
  • use Scribd if you are under thirteen (13) years of age;
  • upload content if you are under eighteen (18) years of age;
  • use Scribd in an illegal or unlawful way.

Content restrictions

Scribd places certain limits on content that our members can upload. You agree that you will not upload content that:

  • is illegal, or promotes or enables illegal or unlawful activities;
  • violates any applicable law or regulation;
  • infringes the copyright, patent rights, trade marks, trade secrets, or other intellectual property rights of another person or entity (see Scribd's Copyright Resource Center for more information);
  • violates the privacy rights, or other personal rights, of others, or induces others to do so; even if the information is considered “public” or published publicly elsewhere; 
    • Personal information in public records of any kind must be fully redacted and completely unreadable to both humans and computers before posting to Scribd. 
    • Personal information includes, but is not limited to, home addresses, national/social identification numbers, credit card information, phone numbers, personal signatures, arrest records, political affiliation, school grades, test results, medical records, disabilities, and sexual orientation.
    • You may not post images of other persons without their explicit consent or an appropriate license.
  • contains, collects, or solicits personal information about anyone under age 18;
  • solicits personal information about anyone for commercial or unlawful purposes;
  • exposes chat logs, tweets, posts, texts, emails, and other private or deleted communications without all parties’ explicit consent;
  • is intended to, or tends to, defame, harass, abuse, threaten, or cruelly denigrate others;
  • is intended to, or tends to, promote hatred, bigotry, or harm toward others on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, age, class, caste, disease, or disability;
  • is intended to, or tends to, promote or celebrate acts of terrorism and/or terrorist organizations;
  • is intended to, or tends to, promote or induce self-harm and/or suicide;
  • is intended to, or tends to, deceive or defraud consumers of Scribd content; 
  • is intended to, or tends to, facilitate the piracy of books, movies, music, software, or any kind of media;
  • includes links that are unclear, obscured, misleading, deceptive, or malicious;
  • is designed, laid-out, or composed in a manner that obscures the content's intent or origin;
  • is designed, laid-out, or composed in a manner designed to optimize search engine rankings;
  • makes unsolicited offers, including offers that link to third-party websites;
  • exposes website passwords, account data, or other private account information;
  • alters or maliciously embellishes public records (including by means of titles and descriptions), unless the alteration is to redact personal information;
  • displays unduly lurid, violent, and gory images, or images of sexual violence and assault;
  • displays pornographic or luridly sexual imagery;
  • is inaccurate;
  • misrepresents or disguises the source, identity, authorship, or content of information;
  • is obtained from another Scribd member's account;
  • is duplicative or substantially similar to other content uploaded by you, or by associates affiliated with you; whether in one account or across multiple accounts.

Academic cheating and plagiarism

Scribd strictly prohibits content that facilitate academic cheating and plagiarism. We also do not condone or support the use of content from Scribd for the purposes of academic cheating or plagiarism. 

You agree that you will not upload content, or use Scribd.com or the Scribd apps in any way, that:

  • is intended to, or tends to, promote cheating, plagiarism, or any academic malfeasance; 
  • provides, or links to “course packs,” “test banks,” “cheat guides,” or any material that provides answers to course, quiz, test and exam questions.
  • infringes the copyright, or other intellectual property rights, of educational content providers, educational institutions, instructors, students, or other rightsholders;
  • provides guarantees, whether explicit or implied, of grades or exam results.
  • violates an academic code of conduct or academic code of ethics.

 

This notice is not intended to enumerate all conditions under which content or activity is determined to be prohibited. Scribd reserves the right to remove content and restrict account access for any reason, pursuant to §12.1 of the General Terms of Use.  Please send any questions about this notice to support@scribd.com.

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