Quote:
Originally Posted by K. Molen
if I spend a lot of time formatting and cleaning up a PD text I've found on the internet, and then sell that on Amazon say, would it be legal for someone to buy one copy from me, maybe change the cover, and then turn around and sell that themselves?
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Yes.
Public domain means that the work is no longer protected by copyright. Formatting a document does not re-establish copyright protection.
A new translation, or a recreation in a new medium will be protected, but does not change the public domain status of the original material. If I make a film out of
Wuthering Heights and put out an ebook of it, the film itself is protected, while the public domain portion (the original book) stays in public domain.