eReader "free" e-books a hoax?

[Colin Dunstan]

Last week we discussed a December promo at eReader.com offering a free e-book for download every day.

I know the saying goes 'don't look a gift-horse in the mouth', but let's still have a look at the e-books being offered as free by eReader.com:

Dec 01 J. Verne Around the World
Dec 02 F.H. Burnett A Little Princess
Dec 03 -- The 9/11 Commission Report
Dec 04 J. Conrad The Secret Agent
Dec 05 L.F. Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Dec 06 A. Chekhov At Christmas Time
Dec 07 P. David Star Trek: New Frontier: Stone and Anvil
Dec 08 H.G. Wells The Time Machine
Dec 09 M. Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Dec 10 C. Dickens Some Christmas Stories
Dec 11 M. Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Dec 12 H.G. Wells Twelve Stories and a Dream

Except for one Star Trek novel that is also available for $5 at Amazon.com, all e-books offered are public domain and can be freely downloaded from various places such as Gutenberg.org.

This is not the first time eReader.com is trying to promote their webstore with out-of-copyright e-books. In fact, some of those e-books are exactly the same e-books that were offered by eReader.com as "free" almost half a year ago.

My advise: if you are looking for freebies, don't waste your time following those pseudo-promos (and handing out your credit card information), but go directly to Gutenberg.org.

[Jorgen]

Or if you want the books in some ebooks format: http://www.blackmask.com as they have nearly everything Gutenberg has and a few more things. The 9/11 report can he had from the free ebooks at Fictionwise.

Jorgen

[dwig]

eReader's current program is not a "hoax" as the eBooks are, indeed, free. It is, instead, more of a phishing scam to collect user information and to advertise their site.

Personally, I avoid eBooks in proprietary formats when possible. In addition to the already mentioned Project Gutenberg and Blackmask sites, Memoware ( http://www.memoware.com ) is also and excellent site for acquiring public domain eBooks

[hacker]

Originally Posted by Jorgen

The 9/11 report can he had from the free ebooks at Fictionwise.

Their version of the 9/11 Commission Report is nothing short of a joke. They simply took the text version and converted it to the various other versions, without any regard for proper presentation of the material for handheld readers.

My two versions are significantly better, because I care about the users, not the dollars. There will be a lot more of these quality works coming soon from me, through a new venture I've started to do exactly this kind of work.

[Colin Dunstan]

Ok perhaps I should not have called it a hoax, but "phishing scam" instead... either way, I feel like they are trying to cheat their potential customers.

[Francesco]

Well, I actually think it's cool. At least for those like me that already have an account in eReader.com.
I downloaded The time machine today, and I wish I had DL'd a couple of others on that list (Conrad and Chekhov are among my favorite writers). I could find them in Gutenberg, but then I would have to convert them, and converting a full length eBook from .txt to whatever it's something I like to avoid when it's possible.

I guess once you freely distribute an eBook, it'll be harder (if not impossible) to sell it again, at least for more than three dollars. The problem with copyright material would be to convince, say, Dan Brown (hey, this is just an example) and his publisher to do something of the sort. Even just to experiment it. EBooks for free might work to boost hardcopy sales, as Cory Doctorow knows, but not softcopies.
You can give some paper books for free, and still the rest of the people involved in the making and distribution of a book, besides the bookshop, could be benefited. But that would hardly work in the 1s and 0s domain.

All things considered, they're only after your email address, that's a fact. Well, and your money after that.

EDIT:
Hey! I found The time machine in Memoware!!!
Formatted for eReader!
What a scam! What a... what did you say? HOAX?
Fooled again!

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

Ok perhaps I should not have called it a hoax, but "phishing scam" instead... either way, I feel like they are trying to cheat their potential customers.

exactly ...

[gadgetguru]

It happened before. This is not the first time, eReader use Public Domain books as free bait. Last August (?, Not sure), Mortricity (eReader's owner) does it when Palmgear kieep repeating freebies and eReader keeps pumping out public domain freebies. That's why I question some sites for giving them free publicity for this one. Sure, some people prefer formatted books, even public domain ones. But if they want publicity, they should pay (ads) to the sites not give away public domain books. After all, most enthusiasts sites are struggling and Motricity is probably making money...At most, the promo only deserves a single mention and nothing more...

Fictionwise freebies are better, many are also public domain, but they do include many copyrighted texts like the Hugo Sci-fi nominees...

Best ebook freebies had been Microsoft's (Summer 2003), but then again, they got deep pockets...

[Francesco]

Originally Posted by gadgetguru

Best ebook freebies had been Microsoft's (Summer 2003), but then again, they got deep pockets...

Also, I would think MS completely owns those eBooks. I mean that there is no "Dan Brown's publisher" in the middle.

[Alexander Turcic]

I think its scam. Sorry folks