keith said:

Really, so then it is perfectly light to take a book rip out the copyright notice and post the book on the web for free.

you seem to be totally confused. the point of the public-domain is that copyright protection has run its course. so nobody owns a public-domain book. including project gutenberg. the copyright has _elapsed_... a book which is still under copyright is completely different.

Duhh, what that I did read the fine print before posting!!

educate yourself _fully_ by reading _all_ of the fine-print... don't just pick-and-choose whatever fits your fancy today. besides, that fine print has been discussed countless times. if you've just gotten around to reading it, you're uninformed. *** scott said:

PG deals almost entirely with books in the Public Domain. There is no copyright to infringe upon.

well, actually, there _are_ some copyrighted books in p.g. so if you really want to clamp down on the rogue resellers, see if they've improperly offered those copyrighted works... *** michael said:

So does Barnes & Noble

sigh. yes, that's true, and -- as quoted back in the original article in the washington post -- greg did acknowledge that, but added that amazon is one of the worst offenders, because they sell the most books. it's important to note that neither amazon nor barnes&noble are the rogue parties here. they are merely _selling_ e-books being provided to them by the real rogues -- rogue publishers. yes, the booksellers take a cut, and thus they do profit, a bit, but they also suffer more when the public turns bitter on them, so i'm sure they don't particularly _like_ this thorny situation... but -- to repeat it once again, in the hope that it sinks in -- p.g. is responsible for this problem, by not asserting itself as an e-book publisher within the major bookselling arenas. the p.g. name would outsell all of the little rogue publishers, chasing them from scene simply by taking away their _profit_, which is the _only_ reason these (perfectly legal) scum exist... you have no legal authority to challenge them, but nonetheless, you do have the market power to chase them away completely... you could even charge a very low fee -- merely to cover costs -- but _also_ inform people that a free version is always available at your own website. this might require getting some kind of exception from the standard policies of the various booksites -- or it might not, it's not clear from their terms of service -- but if you make a stink, they would _have_to_ accommodate you, because none of them can take the p.r. hit from offending p.g. so here's the question: do you believe in free e-books enough to _fight_ for them? if so, then prepare to crawl into the ring, boys... -bowerbird p.s. this leveraging of public opinion is why, even though i disagree with the thrust of the original article, i'm glad that it was written, because it made people discuss the situation.