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Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

standardebooks.org

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Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#51

Post by robin_reala »

asveikau wrote: post #49
robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

What kind of features does "advanced epub" provide that "compatible epub" cannot?

Our projects are built with the broad assumption that the latest tech is supported across the board: the “advanced epub” is generated by zipping that up and renaming it to .epub. The build step then runs the book through a compatibility pass to remove some of the functionality that simply isn’t there in many readers. For example, it:

1. renders the cover as a JPG from the native SVG

2. converts more complicated selectors (e.g. :nth-of-type, :empty, etc.) to classes and class selectors

3. renders MathML as images

4. renders SVGs as images

…and a bunch more things to make it work better with older ereaders, which tend hang around for a long time.

It’s worth pointing out that the Kobo builds are closer to the “advanced” build as they have great native support for MathML and SVG. But the build step adds in a bunch of Kobo-specific markup to make it work better there.

In my experience, Apple Books does the best with the advanced builds, but it doesn’t support SVG covers so you end up with autogenerated ones, which seems a shame. I’ve sent a couple of feedback issues to them over the years, but if anyone else wants to also do this feel free.

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#52

Post by htunnicliff »

robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Have any public library systems ever tried to partner with Standard Ebooks to help improve the discoverability and accessibility of classics for ebook users?

It would be neat to see those editions show up in when browsing collections in apps like Libby or Overdrive (at least in the U.S.).

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#53

Post by pncnmnp »

Happy Public Domain Day, everyone! Such a great project.

A bit tangential here, but I am really looking forward to 2035 for the public domain. A ton of culturally significant works seem to enter then - And Then There Were None, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Batman (Detective Comics #27), Superman #1, Marvel Comics #1, and Tintin’s King Ottokar’s Sceptre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2035_in_public_domain

Wikipedia also tells me that all of the 'life + 70" countries will have Ian Fleming's James Bond works in the public domain in 2035 as well.

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#54

Post by acabal »

htunnicliff wrote: post #52
robin_reala wrote: post #2

I’m a contributor – I did Kafka’s The Castle , Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread , and Stella Benson’s The Faraway Bride for this launch – and I’m happy to answer any questions about Standard Ebooks.

Have any public library systems ever tried to partner with Standard Ebooks to help improve the discoverability and accessibility of classics for ebook users? It would be neat to see those editions show up in when browsing collections in apps like Libby or Overdrive (at least in the U.S.).

No, none have reached out yet. I've had some brief, high-level discussion along those lines with some people in the library industry, and the conclusion I drew is that public libraries in the US are highly fragmented in terms of technological capability. Instead of partnering with individual local library systems, it would make the most sense to - as you mentioned - partner with Overdrive. But there's been no movement in that direction. If anyone from Overdrive is reading, get in touch :)

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#55

Post by dhosek »

stockresearcher wrote: post #30
apwheele wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh to be clear, these are books I own the copyright to (published through my own imprint).

This is a group that gets independent author ebooks into public libraries. Perhaps contact them to find out how to do it: https://indieauthorproject.com/authors/

It seems like Hoopla does a lot of self-published and indie published books. That kind of fits in with their business model where they charge a flat fee per lending of the book, so they have an incentive to get as many books on the platform as possible.

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#56

Post by hopelite »

hopelite wrote: post #17
1313ed01 wrote: post #15

It would be interesting to see a combined list taking into account both US "1930 or older" rule and more common internationally "life+70" rule, to see what works have finally escaped both of those and make works a bit less unsafe to make use of, but I have not seen any list like that?

That sounds like a good project for you then

Apparently it’s not a good project for you

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#57

Post by igravious »

raudette wrote: post #29

Related: for fun over the holidays, I created an ePub of a paperback copy of "I Brought The Ages Home", by Charles T. Currelly, which went out of copyright in Canada in 2007 (copyright in Canada changed from 50 to 70 years after the death of the author in 2022, but this did not affect works that were already in the public domain). I couldn't find a ebook online, so I found an old paperback copy and created one: https…

This is the often unappreciated selfless that benefits all. Thank you

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#58

Post by sgc »

robin_reala wrote: post #37
Kerrick wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you get these ready for release on Public Domain Day without breaking copyright law during the production process? I am not a lawyer, so I have only a surface understanding.

I’m not based in the US and have no intention of travelling there, so I don’t count myself in much danger for US copyright law. Regardless, my understanding of copyright is that people broadly get annoyed when you infringe by distribution. In this case the distribution didn’t happen until the copyright had expired. People preparing these projects for later launch do it purely on their own machines, and nothing arrive…

It would be close to impossible to demonstrate loss, which is always highly relevant in copyright suits (not a lawyer, but I have scanned and digitized hundreds of thousands of pages at https://CatholicLibrary.org and read up on the topic over the years).

Re: Standard Ebooks: Public Domain Day 2026 in Literature

#59

Post by dajare »

thangalin wrote: post #44

Standard Ebooks produces exceptional quality documents. Here's my comparison against similar projects: https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/11/project-gutenberg-p...

Somehow I stumbled across your post/series back in 2020, and that was my first introduction to Standard Ebooks. Now, these years later, I've produced >60 SE titles, and read many, many more. Needless to say, I'm greatly in your debt! :)
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