Have you ever purchased a public-domain eBook?

[ownedbycats]

I noticed Kobo had a sale for a bunch of PD eBooks which made me wonder about this.

Question is in the title. Note that if it wasn't in the PD at the time (e.g. The Great Gatsby before a few years ago), it doesn't count. Neither do physical copies.

A few years ago, I accidentally purchased an eBook and read it before realizing I could've gotten it from Project Gutenberg. It was less than a dollar so I wasn't too upset.

[Sirtel]

I have to say I don't know. Maybe I have and I no longer remember, or I have done so unknowingly. I'd have to check most of my calibre library to know for sure, as any PD books I have there aren't specifically marked/tagged as such.

So I didn't vote.

[ownedbycats]

Dang, I can't find an option to edit a poll

[Karellen]

I did, back in the early 2010's during my dark ages of ebook knowledge.

Saw Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins and a few others at a very cheap price of a couple of dollars on Amazon, so quickly snapped them up.

It was only a few years later that I realised that these were public domain books and I could have avoided the cost.

[issybird]

There are two situations where I'll purchase a public domain book.

When the front matter is significant. A Penguin or Oxford edition, for example. Price does matter here; I'll pay a few bucks for it, but otherwise I'll go with the free version.

When it's a case of a recent and better translation. I know this is apples and oranges to an extent, but I mention it because good translations matter. No point in struggling with an archaic translation of a challenging work when a recent translation would make it accessible.

[DNSB]

I purchased several PD books when I knew the company that produced the editions had put the work in to produce a better formatted edition compared to Gutenberg. It was worth the 99¢ per book rather than editing the books myself.

[Quoth]

Sometimes, even though it's PD, there is isn't even a scan availble. Sometimes there is only a scan, but in that case I won't pay much.

Newer translations don't count as PD because a translation has its own copyright. It's irrelevant that the source is PD. Of course if the source isn't PD, then a translation must be authorised and pay a royalty to original source.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I purchased several PD books when I knew the company that produced the editions had put the work in to produce a better formatted edition compared to Gutenberg. It was worth the 99¢ per book rather than editing the books myself.

That can be true too, but I bought complete set of books that Jane Austin mentions and they were very poor formatting and proof from OCR.

[DrNefario]

Not knowingly, but I wouldn't rule it out if the edition was nice enough. Typically I don't want to read older books enough to pay for them.

[drofgnal]

I voted no, but now I do remember buying a recent translation of War and Peace as well as the Penguin classics version for 1.99. Other than that no. When I get a public domain book I have to search on amazon. They typically when you search a title give you all sorts of paid options and you have to dig to find the free one. Amazon has now started putting paid versions of public domain out there as part of their new pathetic version of ‘deals of the day’. For example, today the Hugo classic Les Miserables is a 1.99 ‘deal of the day’. I now look at the MR library first and other sources.

[Cactus Chef]

I bought The Worm Ouroboros because I was intending to read it and then transcribe it as a project for Standard eBooks. But then I couldn't get myself to finish reading it, got distracted, and someone else eventually completed the project. Oh well.

I think I also bought the Great Gatsby after it went into PD and Amazon had dropped the price to a buck or two in order to get as many sales as it could before the PD versions started flooding the marketplace. I wasn't aware at the time that it had entered PD that year.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth;I4449353

Newer translations don't count as PD because a translation has its own copyright. It's irrelevant that the source is PD. Of course if the source isn't PD, then a translation must be authorised and pay a royalty to original source.

That's why I said "apples and oranges". A PD translation is an imperfect substitution for a contemporary translation, but it's not irrelevant. It's still an option for reading the original text (obviously also PD) in translation and translations always have issues.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by issybird

There are two situations where I'll purchase a public domain book.

When the front matter is significant. A Penguin or Oxford edition, for example. Price does matter here; I'll pay a few bucks for it, but otherwise I'll go with the free version.

When it's a case of a recent and better translation. I know this is apples and oranges to an extent, but I mention it because good translations matter. No point in struggling with an archaic translation of a challenging work when a recent translation would make it accessible.

I've just done the latter, partly because when comparing the two versions I realized that the 19th century translator must have done a fair amount of trimming, possibly due to doctrinal differences.

I also just like collecting different translations.

I bought a particular copy of Canterbury Tales because I liked how the professor who published it modernized the spelling and added the necessary glossary plus explanatory notes without fully translating it into modern English.

As well as the quoted reasons, I've also bought PD books when the public domain sites hadn't got around to distributing that particular book.

I'm still amused at the C.S. Lewis books I picked up for cheap (in the public domain in Canada) where the 'publisher' felt the need to add footnotes explaining their doctrinal differences from Lewis. At least, unlike some 19th translators, they hadn't changed or omitted any words of Lewis's text.

[tomsem]

I have bought a number of Delphi collections. All of it is public domain, but they offer consistent quality and it's nice to have everything the author published even if I wind up reading very little of it.

Apart from that I avoid purchasing public domain, because quality is often dubious and I don't want to spend any time sorting out which are better. Also Kindle Unlimited has at least 400 PD books with audiobook companions available, and I'll usually consume those rather than reading from one of the Delphi collections. But TBH I am not reading much PD of late.

[lumping-sugar66]

I didn't purchase, but borrowed them from Libby.

I look at the available copies, and check if the amount is "Unlimited". With publishers such as Duke Classics their books are available in unlimited amount and usually come without DRM. That's the sort of business model I'd like to support and have no issue borrowing. I think I borrowed a lot of Oscar Wilde books from Libby from them (The Picture of Dorian Gray, as an example). Although I do download a lot of free books, too.

If any of these criteria don't match and I can find the book on Gutenberg or standardebooks, I'm not borrowing.