Our commitments

Scribd, Inc. is the parent company to four distinct products: Scribd, Slideshare, Everand, and Fable. Each product serves different audiences and operates under different content models, therefore requiring distinct responsibilities.

Collectively, these products offer a massive collection of content: hundreds of millions of documents, presentations, ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts and more. With that scale comes responsibility.

We hold ourselves accountable to the following commitments.

This work is ongoing. As technology, regulation, and the needs of our communities evolve, so will our approaches.

Explore our approach

Copyright & intellectual property
Trust & safety
Creators & partners

Copyright & Intellectual Property

Protecting intellectual property rights is central to how Scribd, Inc. operates across all its products.

We respect the rights of authors, publishers, and creators, and we expect every user of our services to do the same. Our approach is built on compliance with applicable copyright law, including the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and on clear policies governing how content may be uploaded, shared, and used across our platforms.

On our user-generated content platforms, Scribd and Slideshare, content is uploaded directly by our members and is not subject to pre-approval by Scribd, Inc.  We rely on a combination of upload rules, user reporting, human review, and automated tools to help prevent the unauthorized sharing of copyrighted material. 

These platforms are supported by BookID, our proprietary copyright protection system designed to identify and limit the distribution of copyrighted works uploaded without authorization. BookID creates a secure digital fingerprint for copyrighted works in its database and uses it to scan uploaded content. When something sufficiently matches a fingerprint from its database, BookID removes it from the corpus. Scans happen regularly to modify the current and pre-existing corpus. Learn more about BookID here.

On Everand, our premium subscription service, content is made available through direct licensing and distribution agreements with publishers and rights holders. These agreements define what titles are  available and how they are accessed and protected. We display book metadata given to us by our publishing partners while, internal guidelines influence how content is surfaced to readers.

On Fable, title details are used primarily for community tracking or discussion purposes, and are sourced from third-party metadata providers or added at user request. Fable also offers an integrated ereader experience that allows readers to preview and purchase ebooks from authorized partners directly within the app. This metadata is sourced through publisher-provided ONIX feeds.

Across all platforms, we maintain processes for addressing alleged copyright infringement, including procedures for reporting copyright infringement, submitting takedown requests and counter-notices where applicable. Repeated or egregious violations of our policies may result in content removal or account suspension or termination.

For more detailed guidelines on copyright, DMCA, and intellectual property policies, visit our help center.

Trust & Safety

We believe that access to information expands us as individuals and elevates us as a society. A wide range of texts and documents are vital to critical thinking and healthy public discourse. Stories have the power to enrich, comfort, inform, inspire, and evolve us. Expertise demands to be valued, showcased, and shared.

To support open access while protecting our communities, we hold ourselves accountable to the following principles.

Trust

On our user-generated content platforms, we leverage a mix of human and automated methods to review and best ensure the content you see on our platforms complies with our Community Rules, the goal of which is to provide a safe space for our users to exchange and consume information.

Our safety efforts include a mix of user reporting features that allow our community to flag content and automated systems that use AI to scan documents and extract potential violations. We have guidelines that prohibit illegal content, exploitation, harassment, privacy violations, misrepresentation, and other forms of abuse.

On our premium content platforms, licensed works are made available through partnerships with publishing houses around the world, and are managed to ensure a consistent, reliable experience for readers and partners. We strive to offer a diverse and engaging collection for our global audience; however, we reserve the right not to carry content that is illegal, causes harm, or incites violence.

When we become aware of a piece of content that potentially violates our guidelines, we take appropriate actions – investigating and removing the content if needed. While no system is perfect, we are always adapting to improve our content moderation.

Balance

We want your content experience with us to be just as thoughtful as it is expansive, so we strive to find the right balance between free expression and keeping our community safe. That's why we’ve created clear and fair guidelines and experiences, focused on preventing harm in various forms – whether that be through illegal content, exploitation, sharing of personal information, misrepresentation, piracy, or harassment, and more. Our north star is to advance human understanding for people all over the world, and we want an environment where different voices can be heard without putting user safety or intellectual property rights at risk, encouraging a free flow of ideas while still respecting legal and ethical standards.

Access

In a world full of polarization, misinformation, and censorship, we take our platforms’ role to enable access to information seriously. Our library will not be the decider of who is right or wrong, whose beliefs are more sound, what does or does not deserve air time. We understand that in today’s world of editorializations, hot takes, misinformation, censorship, book bans, and more, this may feel rare and at times provoke discourse or even discomfort. But we believe this is at the core of the institution of the library itself and what’s made it stand the test of time. A library doesn’t discriminate; it doesn’t sugarcoat – it offers the materials the world has produced, for the world to consume. It is up to you to decide what to do with what you’ve gained from it.

Industry Affiliations

We engage with industry groups to help inform responsible practices, share signals, and contribute to a safer online world.

A coalition of Middle Tech companies shaping a safer, more innovative Internet rooted in trust, opportunity, and user protection.

A community of tech companies working together to protect children online, including signal-sharing program, Lantern.

For more information on our trust and safety guidelines, visit here.

Creators & Partners

Creators, authors, and publishers are central to our platforms. We are committed to treating content with care, respecting intellectual property rights, and supporting sustainable content systems.

On user-generated platforms, Scribd and Slideshare, we provide guidelines and tools that help creators share their work responsibly and reach audiences meaningfully. For guidelines on uploading content, visit here. 

On our premium platform, Everand, we work directly with publishers and rights holders to ensure licensed content is distributed, discovered, protected and presented in ways that reflect agreed-upon terms and reader expectations. Publishers can explore getting their content on Everand by contacting pubpartners@scribd.com.

Across all of our products, our responsibility is stewardship: to value expertise and creativity, protect the integrity of content, and evolve our platforms in partnership with the people who make them possible.