Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags

Project Gutenberg License

A topic by Spells & Scrolls created 18 days ago Views: 68 Replies: 1
Viewing posts 1 to 2
(+1)

Hello!
While I was researching for the translation of the second page, I read the Project Gutenberg license and I'm a bit unsure of what we can and cannot do. It states:

"If you want to use the name Project Gutenberg anywhere in the ebooks you distribute or on the distribution medium or in advertising you have to obey these rules:

  • you may only distribute verbatim copies of the ebooks. No changes are allowed to the ebook contents. (Though reformatting the ebook to a different file format is considered okay).
  • [...]

If you don’t agree with any of the above mentioned restrictions, you may not use the Project Gutenberg trademark. You may still distribute the ebooks if you strip the Project Gutenberg license and all references to Project Gutenberg."

They also explain at the beginning that:

"Such a Project Gutenberg ebook is made out of two parts: the book text not protected by U.S. copyright law and the non public domain Project Gutenberg trademark and license. If you strip the Project Gutenberg license and all references to Project Gutenberg from the text, you are left with a text unprotected by U.S. intellectual property law. You can do anything you want with that text in the United States and most of the rest of the world."

The way I understand it, we can only mention the Project Gutenberg if we keep the exact same content. If we make any modification to the ebook, we cannot make any reference to their trademark and we are simply using the first "text not protected by U.S. copyright law" part.
Our translation is not a verbatim copy of the ebook (especially ours which is... very modernized😅), so is it okay to completely remove/modify the second page so that the references to Project Gutenberg do not appear?

Thank you for your help, this topic is always a bit confusing!

(1 edit) (+2)

Yeah, I didn't notice that. Indeed, it would be more correct not to mention Project Gutenberg at all as they say, but it shouldn't be a huge deal either way (it's all public domain material after all). Thanks for bringing this up!