you and i don't disagree, michael. no matter how hard you might try, or how much you might type. sorry. you and greg seem convinced that the rogue republishers are amazon. but i see publisher names listed such as "evergreen review" and "volumesofvalue". perhaps these are just fronts for amazon, but they usually don't operate that way... and even if it was amazon itself that is selling public-domain e-books, so what? nobody complains if random house sells a "pride and prejudice" p-book, do they? corporations are part of the "public" too. and i'm truly sorry that project gutenberg hasn't benefited financially yet from talks with amazon. or google. or anyone else. i really hope that comes to pass some day. but in the meantime, you don't need any back-room negotiations or special favors. just sell your e-books yourself, at amazon. the people would _love_ to support you by purchasing their e-books directly from you. and yes, i'm quite familiar with the press, and i know how they love to twist quotes, so they will end up with something juicy... and thus i would have loved for greg to have come here and told us that he was misquoted, and that he heartily approves of republishers as a healthy sign of a vigorous public-domain, which is what i believe that he should have said. but if he came here and said he was misquoted, i must have missed that.

Your "hate speech" analogy is even more flawed. . . . Not to mention have treat right on the edge of Godwin.

actually, i was thinking of the so-called "christians" and so-called "patriots" who _today_ carry signs that say "god hates faggots", not nazis from 65 years ago. hate speech is alive and well, and thriving in the u.s.a.

If Amazon had never called me at all, my only arguments would be about The Golden Eggs, but since they wasted a lot of our time, I think they owe us something. 

you'll need to take that up with them. i can't help you. next time you might wanna demand to be paid in advance.

Why are you here?

oh, i thought i made that clear. but i can tell you again. i'm here because i expect that project gutenberg will be one of the strongest and most consistent supporters of the rights of the public to use public-domain material... and indeed, usually i see that expectation being fulfilled. so when the opposite happens, i will say "hey, what's up?" i'm sorry if that is perceived as being disloyal in some way. -bowerbird