Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules
Some real absolutely timeless classic stories are available in the public domain right now. If I had more time, money and passion, I'd be the RMS of the public domain. In my mind it's the free-est a work can possibly be. Unencumbered by licensing or copyright (or copyleft) considerations. You like it? Use it for whatever you want in whatever way you want.<p>One of my friends was looking for something to read, had an old kindle but didn't really have any money to pay for anything. I pointed her towards these absolute classics which kept her occupied for months, and then she passed them down to her kids. She now has a kindle full of more books than she can possibly read, all for free. And her children are now benefiting from this as well. The last time we spoke, her son was enjoying romping across Mars in the "Barsoom" series, a series of books <i>I</i> grew up enjoying immensely. Even while looking for these I was stunned how many freaking <i>awesome</i> works are out there in the PD.<p>(most of these have ready-to-go kindle versions)<p>All of the Oz books (yes, there is more than 1 as I was delighted to find out) - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42</a><p>E.R. Burroughs, which gets you the Barsoom series, Tarzan and a handful of other fantastically great adventure reads <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/48" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/48</a><p>Even better, Verne, which gets you adventure, sci-fi and more - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/60" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/60</a><p>A huge collection of Doyle works, Sherlock is a big piece, but he wrote tons of others. <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/69" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/69</a><p>A collection of old Science Fiction monthlies - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=astounding+stories+of+super+science" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=astounding+sto...</a><p>The indomitable works by Dumas - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/492" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/492</a><p>An entire classic bookshelf of Rudyard Kipling - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/132" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/132</a><p>Jack London, who I grew up reading as a child and loving - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/120" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/120</a><p>Stevenson - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35</a><p>And that's just the Gutenberg project. You can dive into several Library of Congress's worth of books, magazine and other literature at archive.org, a well so deep, it's easy to get lost and never find your way back to the same place again. And also happens to have the best on-line e-reader ever made. (Note: not all of these have fallen into the PD, but Archive.org treats them like it's from a world where they are in the PD, demonstrating the power of the idea).<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/texts" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/texts</a><p>but <i>does</i> have an almost 3,000 item Children's library <a href="https://archive.org/details/iacl" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/iacl</a>, mostly of scans of original prints which are <i>amazing</i> on tablets.<p>The Harvard Classics <a href="https://archive.org/details/harvardclassics" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/harvardclassics</a><p>And these astonishing collections<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/comics" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/comics</a><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/imslp" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/imslp</a><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack</a> (which includes 196 issues of OMNI magazine <a href="https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine</a> and 103 issues of Galaxy <a href="https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine</a>, 300 issues of Starlog <a href="https://archive.org/details/starlogmagazine" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/starlogmagazine</a>)<p>And almost 1,500 scans of various Pulp Magazines <a href="https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive</a><p>Several libraries' worth of Computer Magazines (11,000 issues!) <a href="https://archive.org/details/computermagazines" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/computermagazines</a><p>And finally <a href="https://archive.org/details/sciencefiction" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/sciencefiction</a>