Answers.Body: <p>The best-known resource is <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/" rel="nofollow">Project Gutenberg</a>, which exists for precisely this purpose.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:15:55.810Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-08-05T10:32:12.413Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2015-08-05T10:32:12.413Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Standback
Answers.Body: <p>All the work on <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">Wikisource</a> is free (<em>CC or PD</em>) by US law.  It can be downloaded as EPUB with <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource%3aEBook" rel="nofollow">download help available</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T17:28:58.687Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-12-20T17:28:58.687Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: James Jenkins
Answers.Body: <p>The web site <a href="http://www.mobileread.com/" rel="nofollow">Mobile Read</a> maintains a library of public domain eBook files in various formats.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T16:55:05.817Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-12-20T16:55:05.817Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Donald.McLean
Answers.Body: <p><a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/" rel="nofollow">Yale University's Avalon Project</a> has a great collection of free materials in the law, history, and diplomacy realm.</p>
  
  <p>Also, Amazon has lots of free Kindle versions of various works that are no longer under copyright protection. For example, you can find <a href="http://amzn.to/J2w9mq" rel="nofollow">free Shakespeare materials here</a>.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T18:27:00.830Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-12-20T18:27:00.830Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: elixenide
Body: <p>Knowing some classic literature works being free... what would be typical sites to find and download those? (By "classic" I mean those older works that are now regarded to be “copyright-free”.)</p>
  
  <p>I know iTunes, GooglePlay and the rest offer some free literature works via apps, but I am looking for more "open" resources like free online libraries, archives, etc. Does anything alike exist? Is there a directory or something where (copyright-) free books are listed for reference purposes?</p>
  
  <p>The reason why I am asking is that I would hate having to waste time scanning my  hardcopies just to read them on my ebook reader, when such books are freely available in ebook-compatible format somewhere... </p>
  
  <p>Note: I'm talking about freely available literature, and not stolen (non-free) works offered by illegal download sites, and certainly not things like useless "get rich quick" PDF guides. I did my homework and (ab)used some search engines, but in contrast to my usual experiences, search engines didn't really help as most of what they suggest turned out to be sites offering illegal downloads. </p>
  
  <p>The only usable example I found and which had an acceptable quality was <a href="https://archive.org/details/texts" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Archive.org's texts</a>. In fact, it is a pretty good example of what I'm looking/asking for. There must be more, alike resources out there…</p>
  
  <p><hr>
  <sub>Also note the discussion on Meta related to this question — <em>“<a href="https://ebooks.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/44/should-we-make-the-free-books-question-a-community-wiki/">Should we make the free books question a community wiki?</a>”</em></sub></p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:22:55.053Z
Comments.Text: This question appears to be off-topic because it is a [shopping question](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping/).
Comments.UserDisplayName: fuxia
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:25:14.273Z
Comments.Text: @toscho Not really, as it is about the availability of free classic literature. The question is not asking where to buy what... also, things like The Gutenberg Project greatly differ from "ye average online shoppe".
Comments.UserDisplayName: e-sushi
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:30:41.993Z
Comments.Text: _Shopping question_ means: Recommend me a _list of things or resources_, one complete answer is impossible, and I don’t care about the inevitable link rot. It is not about the money, but the quality of the question. These kind of questions tend to attract spammers, the links will probably not work or lead to malware sites over time.
Comments.UserDisplayName: fuxia
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:37:38.647Z
Comments.Text: @toscho You mean like the list of reccomendations that's being asked for at http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/9/clean-up-converted-ebook/20#20 and alike? ;) Besides, the spam and malware argumentation is a weak one... spam can and will be flagged (I do it daily at other SE sites). But I see your general point. Say,are there any mods around here already so I could request deletion? Since there's a reply, I can't kill the question myself anymore... anyway, flagged it for mod attention with deletion request.
Comments.UserDisplayName: e-sushi
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:42:09.793Z
Comments.Text: I have proposed making this a community wiki question http://meta.ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/44/should-we-make-the-free-books-question-a-community-wiki
Comments.UserDisplayName: James Jenkins
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:44:11.700Z
Comments.Text: @JamesJenkins Nice idea... may the mods and the community decide what to do with it. ;)
Comments.UserDisplayName: e-sushi
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:44:56.723Z
Comments.Text: @e-sushi My question was about some very specific points, a _how to_ question, not a _where to go_. :) For a very similar discussion see [this topic on WordPress Development](http://meta.wordpress.stackexchange.com/q/1217/73).
Comments.UserDisplayName: fuxia
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:45:04.327Z
Comments.Text: @e-sushi, you are the community go make your views known on the meta question.
Comments.UserDisplayName: James Jenkins
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T11:46:13.747Z
Comments.Text: @JamesJenkins [Community wikis are not for broad questions](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/55888/145551).
Comments.UserDisplayName: fuxia
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T12:05:53.163Z
Comments.Text: @toscho Don't get me wrong, but I think it would be cool if you could post your point of view as a reply to the related meta question too. That way, people checking the meta question would be able the quickly grasp what it's all about. #JustThinkingOutLoud
Comments.UserDisplayName: e-sushi
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-20T17:53:48.347Z
Comments.Text: Even more problematic is asking these easy / survey / subjective sort of questions during the beta period is strongly discouraged. http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic
Comments.UserDisplayName: bmike
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-12-21T21:50:59.027Z
Comments.Text: In any case, questions should not be solvable in seconds with a Google search.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ian
Tags: <reference-request><free><document><source><download>
Title: Some classic literature is available for free - but where?
UserDisplayName: e-sushi
ThreadText: # Some classic literature is available for free - but where?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2013-12-20)
  
  Knowing some classic literature works being free... what would be typical sites to find and download those? (By "classic" I mean those older works that are now regarded to be “copyright-free”.)
  
  I know iTunes, GooglePlay and the rest offer some free literature works via apps, but I am looking for more "open" resources like free online libraries, archives, etc. Does anything alike exist? Is there a directory or something where (copyright-) free books are listed for reference purposes?
  
  The reason why I am asking is that I would hate having to waste time scanning my hardcopies just to read them on my ebook reader, when such books are freely available in ebook-compatible format somewhere...
  
  Note: I'm talking about freely available literature, and not stolen (non-free) works offered by illegal download sites, and certainly not things like useless "get rich quick" PDF guides. I did my homework and (ab)used some search engines, but in contrast to my usual experiences, search engines didn't really help as most of what they suggest turned out to be sites offering illegal downloads.
  
  The only usable example I found and which had an acceptable quality was [Archive.org's texts](https://archive.org/details/texts). In fact, it is a pretty good example of what I'm looking/asking for. There must be more, alike resources out there…
  
  ---
  
  Also note the discussion on Meta related to this question — *“[Should we make the free books question a community wiki?](https://ebooks.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/44/should-we-make-the-free-books-question-a-community-wiki/)”*
  
  **Tags:** reference-request, free, document, source, download
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: This question appears to be off-topic because it is a [shopping question](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping/).  
  > **username_0**: @toscho Not really, as it is about the availability of free classic literature. The question is not asking where to buy what... also, things like The Gutenberg Project greatly differ from "ye average online shoppe".  
  > **username_1**: _Shopping question_ means: Recommend me a _list of things or resources_, one complete answer is impossible, and I don’t care about the inevitable link rot. It is not about the money, but the quality of the question. These kind of questions tend to attract spammers, the links will probably not work or lead to malware sites over time.  
  > **username_0**: @toscho You mean like the list of reccomendations that's being asked for at http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/9/clean-up-converted-ebook/20#20 and alike? ;) Besides, the spam and malware argumentation is a weak one... spam can and will be flagged (I do it daily at other SE sites). But I see your general point. Say,are there any mods around here already so I could request deletion? Since there's a reply, I can't kill the question myself anymore... anyway, flagged it for mod attention with deletion request.  
  > **username_2**: I have proposed making this a community wiki question http://meta.ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/44/should-we-make-the-free-books-question-a-community-wiki  
  > **username_0**: @JamesJenkins Nice idea... may the mods and the community decide what to do with it. ;)  
  > **username_1**: @username_0 My question was about some very specific points, a _how to_ question, not a _where to go_. :) For a very similar discussion see [this topic on WordPress Development](http://meta.wordpress.stackexchange.com/q/1217/73).  
  > **username_2**: @username_0, you are the community go make your views known on the meta question.  
  > **username_1**: @JamesJenkins [Community wikis are not for broad questions](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/55888/145551).  
  > **username_0**: @toscho Don't get me wrong, but I think it would be cool if you could post your point of view as a reply to the related meta question too. That way, people checking the meta question would be able the quickly grasp what it's all about. #JustThinkingOutLoud  
  > **username_3**: Even more problematic is asking these easy / survey / subjective sort of questions during the beta period is strongly discouraged. http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic  
  > **username_4**: In any case, questions should not be solvable in seconds with a Google search.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 4 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2013-12-20. Score: 11
  
  The best-known resource is [Project Gutenberg](http://www.gutenberg.org/), which exists for precisely this purpose.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2013-12-20. Score: 3
  
  All the work on [Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page) is free (*CC or PD*) by US law. It can be downloaded as EPUB with [download help available](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource%3aEBook)
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2013-12-20. Score: 3
  
  The web site [Mobile Read](http://www.mobileread.com/) maintains a library of public domain eBook files in various formats.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2013-12-20. Score: 3
  
  [Yale University's Avalon Project](http://avalon.law.yale.edu/) has a great collection of free materials in the law, history, and diplomacy realm.
  
  Also, Amazon has lots of free Kindle versions of various works that are no longer under copyright protection. For example, you can find [free Shakespeare materials here](http://amzn.to/J2w9mq).
  
  
  ---
  
  