eReader.com complete december promo list

[Colin Dunstan]

Although I've made my opinion clear on eReader's December promo, I like to share with you the complete list of the "free" e-books, including those that are still officially unlisted for December (copyright-protected works in bold):

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
Dec 13 Sun Tzu The Art of War
Dec 14 E.R. Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes
Dec 15 F.H. Burnett The Secret Garden
Dec 16 L. Tolstoy Anna Karenia
Dec 17 E.O. Orczy The Scarlet Pimpernel
Dec 18 L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables
Dec 19 H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds
Dec 20 K.D. Wiggin The Birds' Christmas Carol
Dec 21 M.A. Collins Body of Evidence CSI: Crime Scene Investigation #4
Dec 22 C.B. McAfee Study of the King James Bible
Dec 23 R. Kipling The Jungle Book
Dec 24 C.C. Moore The Night Before Christmas
Dec 25 C. Dickens A Christmas Carol
Dec 26 L.M. Alcott Little Women
Dec 27 J. Buchan The Thirty-Nine Steps
Dec 28 J.F. Cooper The Last of the Mohicans
Dec 29 D. Defoe Robinson Crusoe
Dec 30 P. Ruditis Star Trek: Enterprise: Shockwave
Dec 31 H.C. Andersen Andersen's Fairy Tales

In other words, if you are looking for e-books that you cannot download otherwise for free, mark three days: Dec 07, Dec 21 and Dec 30.

[Zire]

But you still have to share information in order to get the books?

[Colin Dunstan]

Oh, you still must wait for the particular day to enjoy the promo. I just wanted to share with you the schedule so that you don't miss any important dates

[Francesco]

Well, I spoke very fast when I said it was cool. The first week looked promising, but the rest are not only public domain works, but also pure common place.
I mean, take a look at Gutenberg, and you can find a lot of more interesting texts.
This reminds me of Audible.com freebies section.

[hacker]

You know, I have to wonder where they're sourcing the free versions of this material from.

If they're getting it from Gutenberg, and modifying it (a word-for-word comparison would verify that, Gutenberg translations have "quirks" that are only introduced by their editors), they're in direct violation of Gutenberg's copyright of the translated works for removing all attribution. They would also be in violation of the Lanham Act, for "..false designation of origin". They're also adding restrictions to the work (mandatory signup, locking the work via a credit card number) which were not present in the original work.

I just did a quick check, and they did change some things, which leads me to believe they sourced it from another place, but they might have just done that to avoid detection.

There's another place doing the same thing, but no free download to see if they're actually using Gutenberg's work.

I guess its time to provide them with some confrontation, or some competition.

There is no question they've copied it from somewhere, the question is, did they have the rights to do so, including removing any original attribution of the translator that handled the original work.

[Colin Dunstan]

Just a reminder: today you can download Star Trek: Enterprise: Shockwave, the third book of the whole promo which is not from Gutenberg.