A reader sent in a question today about the legalities of using Public Domain texts downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

This question has actually come across the Support Desk a few times this week from some our newer readers so I thought I would answer the question here publicly so that everyone can benefit from the answer.

Here was the original question as received today:

Recently, I bought Amazon Kindle Profits from you. In the book Project Gutenberg is listed as a PD book source. I have downloaded several ebooks from them (full text). With the books there is infomation on Project Gutenberg, that it is a trademark and includes a license and terms of use for distribution of their ebooks. Their license tells you what you can and can’t do with their books. Is permission from them needed to list and sell the books on Kindle?

And a similar version asked earlier…

“I was going over the license and agreement at Gutenberg.org and they said you cannot sell their public domain books, you can download it to read or give away but cannot sell them. Is this true?”

Here’s the answer:

Here’s the deal with Gutenberg. When you download one of their books and open it, if you scroll down a little you’ll find the **The Legal Small Print** section of the document.

I will quote various passages of this legal section below and then add my comments so that you can obtain a better understanding of what can be done with the books that you download from Gutenberg.

Here’s a section from the **The Legal Small Print** section of a document I downloaded just today:

In other words, they acknowledge that the book is in the Public Domain and we can do anything we want with it including repackaging and selling for profit.

They only ask you to follow certain rules if you distribute the text with the PROJECT GUTENBERG trademark still attached – otherwise, you can use the actual text any way you want to.

So here’s what you do (and Gutenberg is okay with this)…

Remove all of the legal disclaimers and anything and everything that has anything to do with PROJECT GUTENBERG – that’s it.

On every text that you download you’ll find a PROJECT GUTENBERG legal disclaimer at the top of the document and sometimes all the way at the end.

Just remove all of this information leaving nothing but the actual Public Domain work intact and then you are free to use it any way you want.

Here’s another section from the **The Legal Small Print** section of the same document:

Again, notice in the above text that they tell you that you may do what you want with this text as long as you delete the “Small Print” and all references to Project Gutenberg.

So, you’re free to use documents downloaded from PROJECT GUTENBERG in any manner that you see fit as long as the book is clearly stated as being in the Public Domain.

There are some copyrighted works on PG in which the authors of the books have given PROJECT GUTENBERG the right to distribute but this right does not extend to us – these books you can download and read, but not sell. These books will be clearly marked as being protected by international copyright law.

Additionally, if you live outside of the United States, you may run into a situation where a book on PROJECT GUTENBERG is Public Domain in the U.S. but not outside of it.

With the majority of the Public Domain books on PG this not an issue, but it’s recommended that you have a clear understanding of how the copyright laws work in the country in which you live – either that or just make sure that your websites are hosted in the U.S., but that’s the topic of another discussion (see our report, “The Global Copyright Dilemma” which comes as a free bonus with our book, “The Guide To Public Domain Profits” for more details).

To reinforce my points above and really drive this home even further, I will quote from the “Project Gutenberg License Explained Page” on the PG site:

Another thing that I would like to mention is that if you are feeling guilty about “borrowing” Public Domain texts from Project Gutenberg, then feel free to make a donation!

They will gladly accept monetary donations in any amount. Project Gutenberg depends on the time and efforts of devoted volunteers and donations from loyal users like us to survive.

By giving a little back to a Public Domain resource site every time you take, you’ll be helping to ensure that these sites will continue to thrive and continue to provide us with even more great Public Domain works down the road.

Make your mother proud, give a little back (in most cases, this may be considered a tax deduction as well!).

Hope that helps!

Warmly,

For More Information About The Project Gutenberg License, Click Here…

About The Author:

Logan Andrew is an online entrepreneur, information publisher, and author that has been using Public Domain material to create profitable products and businesses since 2001. He is also co-author of "The Guide To Public Domain Profits" available here. For more info Logan, click here.