Should we include the PG .txt files in our distributions?

[phrodod]

I was reading through the PG license agreements, and noticed that it appears to require us to distribute the plain text versions of any book we offer in a proprietary format. I was wondering if this is, in fact, the case, or if I'm reading too much into the license agreement.

Does anyone else have any opinions on this?

Thanks.

Phrodod

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by phrodod

I was reading through the PG license agreements, and noticed that it appears to require us to distribute the plain text versions of any book we offer in a proprietary format. I was wondering if this is, in fact, the case, or if I'm reading too much into the license agreement.

Does anyone else have any opinions on this?

Thanks.

Phrodod

I think you misunderstand the agreement.

The text PG distributes is in the public domain. You are welcome to do anything you like with it. If you convert it to a different format, you must remove the PG boilerplate, as it isn't a PG edition any longer.

You can redistribute the plain text edition too.

A Project Gutenberg ebook is made out of two parts: the public domain book and the non public domain Project Gutenberg trademark and license. If you strip the Project Gutenberg license and all references to Project Gutenberg from the ebook, you are left with a public domain ebook. You can do anything you want with that.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenb...enberg_License
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Dennis

[ricdiogo]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The text PG distributes is in the public domain. You are welcome to do anything you like with it. If you convert it to a different format, you must remove the PG boilerplate, as it isn't a PG edition any longer.

Sort of. If you only make a format conversion you can keep the entire licence + text as it is in the original file. You can simply convert PG's files to any format.
You only have to remove all "Project Gutenberg" references and licence from your converted file if you change any text. For instance, if you don't like the license included in the file, you cannot state there "Produced by Project Gutenberg".
Remember that a good way of getting more ebooks for free in the Internet is by letting people know there's a thing called Project Gutenberg that they can volunteer to. So keeping the licence + text intact whould be very nice although not very nice-looking I admit

[andym]

Originally Posted by ricdiogo

Remember that a good way of getting more ebooks for free in the Internet is by letting people know there's a thing called Project Gutenberg that they can volunteer to. So keeping the licence + text intact whould be very nice although not very nice-looking I admit

'Not nice-looking' is an understatement, and on a pda the legalistic mumb-jumbo (and most of it is unnecessary mumbo-jumbo) goes on for pages and pages and pages. I notice in some of the more recent PG texts that it is at the end or there is a link to skip it which is a bit of an improvement.

I've been reformatting some PG texts as html and doing things like putting back in the non-English accents and correcting the occasional typo or error? Is there a way to submit these versions back to PG?

[ricdiogo]

Originally Posted by andym

I've been reformatting some PG texts as html and doing things like putting back in the non-English accents and correcting the occasional typo or error? Is there a way to submit these versions back to PG?

There is. Please report them to: errata (at) pglaf (dot) org

Also see PG's FAQ.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by andym

'Not nice-looking' is an understatement, and on a pda the legalistic mumb-jumbo (and most of it is unnecessary mumbo-jumbo) goes on for pages and pages and pages. I notice in some of the more recent PG texts that it is at the end or there is a link to skip it which is a bit of an improvement.

You aren't the only one who finds that irritating. The open source WeaselReader for Palm OS devices began as GutenPalm, a reader for PG etexts on Palm devices, and includes a function to skip over the lengthy boilerplate and skip directly to the book.
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Dennis

[phrodod]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I think you misunderstand the agreement.

The text PG distributes is in the public domain. You are welcome to do anything you like with it. If you convert it to a different format, you must remove the PG boilerplate, as it isn't a PG edition any longer.

You can redistribute the plain text edition too.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenb...enberg_License
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Dennis

Dennis;

Thanks for the PG license page that explains everything very nicely and clearly. I had been unsure of the idea of removing ALL references to PG, but now I understand why someone might want to do that.

Phrodod

[andym]

Originally Posted by ricdiogo

There is. Please report them to: errata (at) pglaf (dot) org

Also see PG's FAQ.

Ricardo

What I meant was if I produce an html file from the text file or I format an html file with the proper character entities, is there any way to offer it to PG?

[Robert Marquard]

From Greg Newby:
The license permits reformatting, and even linking to it.
For the "master" versions at gutenberg.org, we include it.

This means you can simply link to the boilerplate text if you want to.

[andym]

Robert/Greg - Thanks that's very helpful and the License oin the site seems to be more up to date than some of the versions in older texts.

[ricdiogo]

Originally Posted by andym

Ricardo

What I meant was if I produce an html file from the text file or I format an html file with the proper character entities, is there any way to offer it to PG?

You must submit it to anyone from the Posting Team.

Please see also the HTML FAQ.

[andym]

Ricardo

Muito obrigado.

[ricdiogo]

De nada

[LaughingVulcan]

Other question (*crosses fingers*):

Is it OK to relocate the license material from the front of the file to the back of it, for books so formatted?

[ricdiogo]

Originally Posted by LaughingVulcan

Is it OK to relocate the license material from the front of the file to the back of it, for books so formatted?

Sure. I see no reason why it wouldn't.