Quote:
Originally Posted by boxcorner
Having previously downloaded How to Analyze People on Sight from Project Gutenberg I was somewhat surprised to discover that amazon.com seems to be charging money for what appears to be the same "free" e-book. I expect this is a naive question, but what am I missing here? |
DRM, generally. Your Project Gutenberg ebook is DRM-free. Amazon adds restrictions and charges you more money. So see, you're paying to be prevented from using public domain books in public domain ways -- isn't that a benefit? </snark>
If there's some kind of added material (commentary or whatever) that will be mentioned. Mostly, Amazon just sells you what you can get here on MR, on PG, on Feedbooks, on ManyBooks, etc., for free.
And no, they don't have better editing than MobileRead books (few if any do). Not many can beat Distributed Proofreading, either. Generally, Amazon (and everyone else who will gladly charge you money for free books) just grabs the free ones, strips off the "this book is free" section, slaps on their own cover, and of course DRM, and charges you money.