I would never pay for something one should consider an illegal book sharing website.
You should do some research about scribd.com before drawing conclusions. From their Terms of Use:
"5. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Please note that since we respect authors’ and content holders’ rights, it is Scribd’s policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”). For more information, please go to Scribd’s DMCA Notification Guidelines. Please note that Scribd will promptly terminate without notice any User’s access to the Scribd Platform if that User is determined by Scribd to be a “repeat infringer”. A repeat infringer is a User who has been notified by Scribd of infringing activity violations more than twice as a result of DMCA takedown notices or other similar copyright notices."
Where a document is uploaded without permissions, the individual who uploaded it will be informed to remove it. Similar to YouTube. Many documents are pay for only, and many others read only. The site is endorsed by Random House publishers and the NY Times.
