Duke Classics

[Phillippe de Poisson]

Hi, I've been looking into contributing to Standard Ebooks and have seen these Duke Classics published versions of public domain books (with a copyright claim of all rights reserved).

First, I cannot find this publisher online. They don't appear to be part of Duke University. There is no address in their books, just the picture of the retriever (or is that an English short-haired pointer?). Does anyone know who this is and why they are so reticent? Perhaps an anonymous wealthy sponsor with a dog?

Then, any guesses as to why they posit a copyright claim? Is this just to protect the publisher name and image?

Finally,  are these books 'in competition' with Standard Ebooks? They can be downloaded, unencrypted from overdrive and are of good quality. Also, SE doesn't list them as a source for making SE editions as it does with Gutenberg or Hathi - why not?

Very curious, Phil

[Vince]

You didn’t provide a link, so it’s impossible to address the first few questions.

We use Gutenberg for transcriptions because they’ve been doing it for decades and they’re very thorough at determining PD. We use Hathi, IA, and Google for original scans because they’re the most likely place to find them.

[Zachary Smith]

I use the Libby app on my phone to borrow ebooks from my local library system. If I search "Duke Classics" within Libby, it yields nearly 4,000 results. I'm not sure who they are, but they've been quite prolific.

[Alex Cabal]

I have no idea who they are, sorry. We have no relation to them.

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/7e0cca44-eaf3-4ccb-8608-513ee64587e5n%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/7e0cca44-eaf3-4ccb-8608-513ee64587e5n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Phillippe de Poisson]

Thanks, all. Yes, I didn't think they were related to SE. I didn't provide a link - that is the point, I can't find any.

If you go to:  https://www.overdrive.com/publishers/duke-classics , it shows the list of their books on the library website. They do audio versions as well. One can easily get an account by nominating your local library, provided your local library participates. Available in many countries). Once in, one can get unencrypted copies of these books. But I can't find *any* info about the publisher. I think I'll ask at overdrive, they may know.

Anyway, what do would think of this publisher and the similarity of their purpose to SE? They do produce quality, readable copies of public domain books.

thanks again, Phil

[Alex Cabal]

It looks like they're just repacks of Project Gutenberg books but with different covers. Those types of operations are a dime a dozen.

[Phillippe de Poisson]

Dime a dozen, perhaps, but they have certainly helped make these books accessible to millions worldwide. I take the point that if they are just repackaging the PG books, then that is different to the proper ebook publishing that standard ebooks is doing.