[KindleKid]

So I've met some writers who have told me about perfecting your own style by transcribing the works of others. Essentially you pick apart a book to understand the author's language, structure, style etc. I've found it really helpful. You don't rip off the writer you understand the writer and gain perspective on your own abilities and style.

Anyway, I'm saying this, because I've transcribed a few works that are out of print and they are just sitting on my computer and can easily be put to .prc.

I understand that it's illegal to gain profit from another person's work (nor would I want to do that), but is there an issue with reproducing a work in a new format (ebook for example) and making it available for free?

As I've said these are out of print but some of them are as new (in copyright) as 1975. If I reproduced a book into ebook format crediting everything as it appears in the original and not mentioning myself anywhere and making it available for free, is there an issue?

Does it equate to concert bootlegs? Essentially if you have a recording you made of a performer and shared it with other publicly, this is legit as long as you do not profit from it. The Grateful Dead were real pioneers of this. The issue is, why would the law spend money stopping media from being distributed that isn't available on an official level anyway? If you have a concert that was never released on CD and someone is sharing, the record company isn't losing money on it. So why spend money to stop them?

Is this the case with out of print books too? If so, then I'll upload a few!