Thread: Dangerously e-books: How do I know if my ebooks have been altered?
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Old 05-05-2014, 10:20 AM   #231
EbookNovice
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady View Post
I have been talking mostly about public domain books. Anyone can change them at any time for any reason.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady View Post
Oh lord.

It's simple. I get a digital copy of a public domain book. I tweak it to make it suit my tastes--changing words, punctuation, sentence structure, whatever. Maybe I have an agenda, maybe I just think I'm making it better. I upload it to the library here, to my Web page, to other sites. People download it. They don't know that I've made changes. They think they're reading the book the author published way back when, but they're not. They're reading my bastardized version..
Right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teyrnon View Post
Easier, sure but I'm not sure it's more likely. What motivation would someone have for this in a clandestine fashion? I suspect anyone who'd actually put that much effort into it would claim credit for their work. At the very least most would add an editor's credit to what they publish. Seems to me they'd want to let people know they've 'improved' it. I doubt we'll be seeing a rash of adulterated classics being passed off as the 'one true version of the author's words and vision' any time soon.

I'm not saying you should only buy Penguin editions. What I am suggesting is that we should bear in mind where something is coming from. I dare say the lion's share of the ebooks you'd find on this site are faithful reproductions of the original text or at least the text of the edition worked from.
They could alter the e-book just from a sense of a prank or a trolling attempt. Many trolls on the internet create amazing stories that can be easily believed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but that's exactly what I do. Their wonderful introductory essays and footnotes allow one to get so much more out of the book than the raw text alone. You may perhaps have noticed that almost all the proof-read classics that I've uploaded to the MR library have been proofed against the "Penguin Classics" edition.
Which introductory essays are included? Who writes these essays?
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