Trip Adler, CEO of Scribd.com Answers His Critics! Not.

Trip Adler, CEO of Scribd.com

Trip Adler, CEO of Scribd.com

Sadly, Trip Adler, 26-year old CEO of Scribd.com, the website that has been accused of wholesale copyright infringement, failed to accept our invitation to appear on tonight’s show.

You will know if you’re a regular listener that, two weeks ago on LITOPIA AFTER DARK, panelist Dave Bartram first raised the issue of website Scribd.com.  It’s basically a huge document repository – they are supposed to have about 50,000 uploads every day, and as many as 55 million visitors a month.  What attracts visitors to this site?

Scribd team one-year anniversary party

Scribd team one-year anniversary party

Well, many things – but one thing Donna noticed immediately was what appeared to be a pirated copy of Harry Potter.  Then the hunt was on, and we quickly discovered more and more illegal copies of books – just sitting there, all ready for anyone to download and steal.

It’s a tribute to the reach of LITOPIA AFTER DARK and its panelists that this issue has been quickly picked up by the UK media.

Caviar and Vodka at Scribd team one-year anniversary party

Caviar and Vodka at Scribd team one-year anniversary party

In fact, the resulting media furore in the UK still hasn’t died down – with front-page coverage in The Times, a big piece in The Guardian, Channel Four News, Sky News, the BBC… the story continues to roll, as well it should.  Because although we know pirated copies of books, films and other digital publications can indeed be found on some very dark corners of the net, Scribd.com is big – very big -  bold and blatant.  And many would say, that they are getting rich by profiting from other’s piracy.

We were hoping that Scribd’s CEO, Trip Adler, would appear on tonight’s show to answer his critics.

He did not.  His absence speaks volumes.  But we still had a good time.

Also on tonight’s show:

  • Is there such a thing as perfect structure? We examine why Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is identical to Macaulay Culkin’s Home Alone
  • Imagine banning Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle. Well, it looks like they’re up for the chop as English Schools ban Scottish writers…
  • We’re talking a lot about piracy tonight – and it’s not just Scribd – this time it’s unauthorized copies of e-book files on E-Bay!
  • And just when you thought it was safe to turn the pages of a paper book, we find out the many ways in which reading can be a danger, an actual danger, to your health.

On tonight’s panel – we welcome from London publishing business guru Martyn Daniels, who blogs for the Booksellers’ Association here, from bonnie Edinburgh Litopia Daily’s voice of Eve’s Salmagundi Club, writer Eve Harvey, from England’s west country Litopia stalwart Dave Bartram, and from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, leading lawyer, author and Litopia Daily’s newshound, Donna Ballman.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download the show as mp3 file

Photos by joeywan

  • Share/Bookmark

One Comment

  • Lynda Garbe says:

    Trip Adler is posting all court cases on the internet. If I type in Lynda Garbe on google my name comes up on a court case of Lynda Garbe v Chrysler …… I filed a law suit against Chrysler and won……I won and received 35,000.00…and now I am out of work and can not find a job because of his article on google…the article has been looked at 45 times….The issue is personnel and should not be on google under his name and should not be on the site at all..Please inform me if there is anything else I can do to him..maybe with a group of people..i could file a lawsuit…put his company on facebook and myspace and what he is doing..no one will answer my call
    Thank You
    Lynda Garbe
    paris_48306@yahoo.com

    contact# 248-412-3022

Leave a Comment

© 2010. "Litopia" is a registered trade mark of The Redhammer Management Ltd. Design: Lunamedia.