***Question to Public Domain Experts***

6 replies
I have a couple of questions on the usage of Public domain.

1. Say if I take an ebook from Gutenberg and post it on my website or sell it as an ebook, would it be illegal if someone else had earlier taken the same book from the public domain and copyrighted it (provided you can copyright public domain works)? I was just wondering how one goes about verifying such things.

2. A number of online resources have been mentioned on the use of Public domain. I was wondering if there are any offline public domain materials that can be used and if so where could I get it?

I would appreciate your guidance in this matter.

Thanks
#domain #experts #public #question
  • Profile picture of the author Miguel Oliveira
    1. It would not be illegal, unless what you were selling was the version someone else created. If you create your own version of the book it is legal.

    2. Most of the PD content is offline. Libraries are the best place to start looking. Anything published before 1923 is public domain.
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    • Profile picture of the author yourreviewer
      Originally Posted by Miguel Oliveira View Post

      1. It would not be illegal, unless what you were selling was the version someone else created. If you create your own version of the book it is legal.

      2. Most of the PD content is offline. Libraries are the best place to start looking. Anything published before 1923 is public domain.
      Thanks Miguel,
      Just to clarify, say if someone sells a book from Public domain (without any modifications) and I sell the same book from Public domain (without any modifications) can he or she take any kind of legal action against me for doing so?
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      • Profile picture of the author capriliz
        Originally Posted by yourreviewer View Post

        Thanks Miguel,
        Just to clarify, say if someone sells a book from Public domain (without any modifications) and I sell the same book from Public domain (without any modifications) can he or she take any kind of legal action against me for doing so?
        Not if you are using the original Public Domain version.

        Now, if someone modifies it enough so they can copyright their version, and you try to use the modified version, you may have a problem then.

        The thread posted by krishananda is very helpful.
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  • Profile picture of the author yourreviewer
    Thanks a bunch guys. This is very helpful.
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  • Profile picture of the author penny_zf
    1) Anything published before 1923 is in the public domain. 2) Any titles that are published between 1924-1978 is in the public domain provided the copyright has not been renewed.
    3) If you find a public domain text and would like to copyright it, you need to do some changes to it or include a new foreword and copyright the foreword only.
    You can check Digital Library by Uni of Penn for more details on public domain
    4) Alternatively you might want to purchase a copy of Yanik Silver's public domain riches
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