Books Should Be Free Is Now Loyal Books.

[GtrsRGr8]

I noticed that one of the more familiar websites to get free ebooks (and audiobooks) has changed their name and URL.

BooksShouldBeFree.com is now LoyalBooks.com. For now, peeps will be okay using the old URL, as there is a redirect in place at the old website to the new one. I have gone ahead and bookmarked the new URL and noted that it formerly was BooksShouldBeFree.com.

BooksShouldBeFree.com doesn't have a huge selection, but for what difference that it might make, it has been around since "forever."

Why the change from a very familiar name to a new one? Loyal Books gives this rather dubious reason: "Books Should Be Free has changed its name to Loyal Books to show how important books are to our lives." Uh, huh.

[JSWolf]

When did Ayn Rand's Anthem or Harry Harrion's Deathworld (book one) become free? There may be others, but those are ones that stand out ATM.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When did Ayn Rand's Anthem or Harry Harrion's Deathworld (book one) become free? There may be others, but those are ones that stand out ATM.

I think the serialized version is the public domain one.

[cromag]

The books might be in the public domain, but I have serious doubts about some of the cover images. For H.G. Wells' The Time Machine the cover image is a poster from the 2002 remake of the movie. For Andre Norton's The Time Traders they use the cover image from Baen's publication -- although it appears to be the trade paperback version, not the cover image from the free library version.

I have no proof. I'm just suspicious that way.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

<snip>
Why the change from a very familiar name to a new one? Loyal Books gives this rather dubious reason: "Books Should Be Free has changed its name to Loyal Books to show how important books are to our lives." Uh, huh.
<snip>


Books Should Be Free/Loyal Books also sells, it looks like only through an Amazon associate arrangement, a modest number of ebooks.

I don't begrudge them that. They are providing a valuable service and the pittance that they get through Amazon helps subsidize their work.

However, the cynic in me says that they changed the name of their business because people were retorting, "if books should be free, why are you selling some of them?"

[dwig]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When did Ayn Rand's Anthem or Harry Harrion's Deathworld (book one) become free? ...

Harry Harrison's Deathworld is public domain in the USA, though it wouldn't be in just about any other jurisdiction. In fact, Project Gutenberg has some 11 of Harrison's works.

Many works that were originally sold to "pulp" magazines in the 1940s through the '70s slipped in to public domain when the magazine vanished or dissolved into some other publishing house and neither they or the original author successfully renewed the copyright during the 12 month window at the end of the original copyright's 28 year span. Failure to renew properly in that critical window meant the work became PD.

There are quite a number of Philip K. Dick's works are PD in the USA even though his estate claimed to have renewed the copyright. There were a number where the renewal was late and contained false information about the date of the original publication that falsely made it look like the renewal was made legitimately.