Greg Newby wrote:
Dunno what the stink is about. We've had trailers and teasers and extracts and such for many years, though never in huge numbers. This is not likely to be the start of a torrent.
Who knows? These `ebooks´ are incomplete and arbitrarily so. There is no motive to offer "the first 25,000 words" of a text for free, if not for the same reason the fisher offers the worm. Also they have no plain text version, which is a clear violation of PG policy, and do not contain the PG license.
It's completely on-mission for us. There's no commercial intention, hidden or manifest. This was just a well-established writer who got in touch to make this offer. It happens sometimes, and I like it when it does.
There is a clear commercial interest in driving people to his site. Following the link and then clicking on the book covers brings up a page that is chock full of book sellers. Kindle versions: $9.65 and $13.79 respectively. There are offers we should clearly refuse.
Perhaps this is a situation where many people (rightly) have different views of what PG is, and its strenghts, and where effort should be devoted.
The more reason to reach a consensus before creating facts. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster@gutenberg.org