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Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books

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Re: Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books

#5

Post by jonhendry »

To be more specific, third parties submit public domain works for distribution as Kindle books. Some people put a $0.00 price, other people specify a non-zero price. Amazon puts it all on there.

A given public-domain text may be represented on the kindle store many times over, submitted by different parties, with different formatting, at different prices.

As a kindle owner, I don't so much mind that there are Gutenberg-sourced public domain texts on there for sale: Maybe a $.99 one is formatted better than the others.

What I mind is that the kindle store is spammed full of such stuff.

The example that bugs me most is the person who took the ten years of Samuel Pepys' diaries, split them up into 120 ebooks each containing one month's worth of diary entries, and put them on the store.

I don't recall if they were charging for them or not, but I was browsing the "history" section of the store, and hit a seemingly never-ending span of one-month Pepys Diaries. Many screens full. On a slow kindle display.

Re: Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books

#6

Post by lulin »

mooism2 wrote: post #4
burgerbrain wrote: post #2

Only somebody who does not know what public domain means would get uppity about this.

This is similar to those people who charge $25 to download Firefox. Is it legal? Yes. Is it ethical? That's more dubious.

Formatting an ebook for the Kindle is not something automatic. This is real work. If someone does this for me and then charges me 99 cent for "Pride and Prejudice", I have nothing against it.

Re: Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books

#7

Post by martey »

lulin wrote: post #6
mooism2 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is similar to those people who charge $25 to download Firefox. Is it legal? Yes. Is it ethical? That's more dubious.

Formatting an ebook for the Kindle is not something automatic. This is real work. If someone does this for me and then charges me 99 cent for "Pride and Prejudice", I have nothing against it.

Except Project Gutenberg has already put its books in MOBI format, which is supported by the Kindle.

Also, did you read the article:

"They took the text version, stripped off the headers and footer containing the license, re-wrapped the sentences, and made the chapter titles bold,"

That does not exactly sound like strenuous editing and curation.

Re: Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books

#8

Post by Tichy »

jonhendry wrote: post #5

To be more specific, third parties submit public domain works for distribution as Kindle books. Some people put a $0.00 price, other people specify a non-zero price. Amazon puts it all on there. A given public-domain text may be represented on the kindle store many times over, submitted by different parties, with different formatting, at different prices. As a kindle owner, I don't so much mind that there are Gutenbe…

A general problem of app stores. What is needed is better discovery methods and filters.

Re: Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books

#9

Post by wolfish »

martey wrote: post #7
lulin wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Formatting an ebook for the Kindle is not something automatic. This is real work. If someone does this for me and then charges me 99 cent for "Pride and Prejudice", I have nothing against it.

Except Project Gutenberg has already put its books in MOBI format, which is supported by the Kindle. Also, did you read the article: "They took the text version, stripped off the headers and footer containing the license, re-wrapped the sentences, and made the chapter titles bold," That does not exactly sound like strenuous editing and curation.

Unless you download them from Amazon they will not sync across devices. But, I see you're point, they are already formatted.

Re: Amazon charges Kindle users for free Project Gutenberg e-books

#10

Post by ez77 »

burgerbrain wrote: post #2

Only somebody who does not know what public domain means would get uppity about this.

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation may get uppity too if the publishers don't surrender 20% of their profits [1]:

  1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
  access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
  that

  - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
       the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
       you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
       owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
       has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
       Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
       must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
       prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
       returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
       sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
       address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
       the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
[1] http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Project_Gutenber...

Edit: By the way, as the very existence of this license demonstrates, the digitization carried out by PG of public-domain works does not result in public-domain texts.

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