copyright international public-domain publishing
Are Gutenberg books illegal to sell in Germany or any non-US countries?
<p>I am building an eBook reading service (paid) and I aim to distribute free classics available on Gutenberg Project. (at least for the start)</p>
<p>I have gone through <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/permission.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">all Gutenberg terms</a> which allows me to do almost anything, but Gutenberg being limited to the US, it doesn't say much beyond that.</p>
<p>I just came to know that Gutenberg is banned in Germany, because of a <a href="https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lawsuit arising out of the situation</a> that copyright expiry differs between Germany and the US (where Gutenberg is located).</p>
<p><strong>My questions are:</strong></p>
<p>Does this mean I cannot sell any books in Germany? Are there exceptions? (By selling I do not mean to sell one book for €xx - it is rather unlimited books per month sort of, but it is no different from selling)</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Is there a central place to know how many years old books could be safe to publish, in every country?</p>
</li>
<li><p>Is there another thing that I am completely overlooking (beyond number of years passed since published / author died)?</p>
</li>
<li><p>If there is a safer, more copyright-free + generic source than Gutenberg to find such books?</p>
</li>
<li><p>If at all infringement occurs, what sort of difficulties could arise for me?</p>
</li>
</ul>

<p>It is not correct to say that &quot;Gutenberg is banned in Germany&quot;. A German court ruled that Project Gutenberg (US) could not provide copies of 18 works to addresses in Germany. PGLF (the foundation that runs Project Gutenberg) decided to block all access from Germany, because similar claims might be made about other works, leading to added legal expense in Germany.  PGLF is said to be appealing the German Court's decision.</p>
<p>Many works in the PG collection are clearly out of copyright in Germany, under German law. Providing those works would not infringe German copyright.  As long as the PG license is complied with (and it is quite permissive) I see no legal problem with such works, but anyone planning to start a business or service reproducing such works would be wise to consult a lawyer with knowledge of copyright law in that person's country.</p>
<p>Note that there are PG affiliates in several countries, including Germany and Australia, that operate under their own local copyright rules, and are run separately, and have different collections of works.</p>
