I did some digging on Scribd. The format they developed is called iPaper - it is Flash based, similar to PDF in function, and has an open API. You can attach any license to a document, including Creative Commons. Think of it as Google Docs meets PDF, but the main goal is social-media-style sharing. The tools don't favor open source, nor do they appear to restrict it in any way.
One point of interest is that a company I worked with seriously considered publishing all of their documentation via scribd, using scribd as their distribution method online and Lulu for print versions. I don't think they ever ended up doing it, but this was not a small startup. One major detractor was that Scribd embeds advertising in the viewer, which is presumably how they monetize the setup - not a problem for self-publishing the star trek novel you have been working on since high school, but not appropriate for commercial enterprises. I don't see anything compelling enough about it to recommend using it for TOS materials, and I think the ads would be problematic. It is a compelling site, though. 2010/6/24 Karsten Wade <kw...@redhat.com> > On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 08:13:19AM -0700, > tosmaillist.neophyte_...@ordinaryamerican.net wrote: > > I'm not sure how Scribd ( https://www.scribd.com/ ) is perceived by > > commercial publishers. Is it considered sufficiently respectful of > > Intellectual property rights to be used as a source for Teaching Open > > Source? > > How are you thinking of using Scribd as a source? > > Keep in mind that, ideally, we are teaching using materials that are > 100% free and open, on platforms that are 100% free and open. I > haven't ever researched Scribd and just spent less than five minutes > on their site, but I can't find any sign that their tools or policies > favor free and open source software and content. > > If there are particular books on that platform, we could use them if > the associated license was sufficiently freed. However, if the > sources are tied up in a proprietary Scribd format/platform, that > could be a problem. > > - Karsten > -- > name: Karsten 'quaid' Wade, Sr. Community Gardener > team: Red Hat Community Architecture > uri: http://TheOpenSourceWay.org/wiki > gpg: AD0E0C41 > > _______________________________________________ > tos mailing list > tos@teachingopensource.org > http://teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos > >
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