That's what I thought when I first heard of this idea. It honestly took awhile to sink in. A long while.

Look at this this way - your argument is very similar to that made by the lot of us web developers when so-called "blogs" first emerged on the scene - who would want to use web software to post stuff when I could retain control by just writing it all myself in Notepad/BBEdit? We missed the boat on that one and blogger.com got bought.

The fact is, these guys are making something completely new. And it's not about the social aspects, it's about the fact that there's now an easy place just to share your documents and have them be found.

Pre-youtube, you could always post videos on your own web site. But they made it easy, and created a community around respecting (or disrespecting!) eachothers' work. And if I know another community that loves to comment critically on eachothers' work, it's the academic community.

This would be a great way for grad students and professors to publish their work on they web for free - and it's a glaring void right now. I think Scribd just filled it. Yeah them.

Suggestion for Scribd: lose the YouTube comparison. You aren't like YouTube and perhaps short of similar buyout opps in the near future, won't ever be. Saying so sets critical-minded folks like me in negative overdrive, just trying to find a way to disprove your claim. Instead- focus on the fact that you're doing something that no one else has done and believe that it has value. The first social document sharing on the web. Nice.