It seems like Scribd would solve more problems if they let uploaders pay to give their readers free access. I'm not the Scribd user; the guy publishing with them is.
Scribd would rather increase the amount of content on it's servers by making uploading easy and free. While the guy that publishes the article is really the Scribd user, he can publish elsewhere if the price makes it too much of a hassle. The viewer has less of a choice, if it's only published on Scribd it's either pay up or go without.
I don't agree with their choice (or methods) but it makes sense for them to do this.
I meant to suggest a strict superset of their current system- keep uploading easy and free, and the reader or publisher can pay for access after the "free" period. Scribd seems to have had a pretty large hook in this guy- I'm sure he's not the only one.
I don't agree with their choice (or methods) but it makes sense for them to do this.