gutenbergsite/site/policy/permission.md

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title: Permission How-to | Project Gutenberg
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Permission How-To
=================

<div class="contents">
<ol>
<li><a href="#Overview">Overview</a></li>
<li><a href="#Most_permissions_not_needed">Most permissions not needed</a></li>
<li><a href="#Terms_of_Use">Terms of Use</a></li>
<li><a href="#Trademark_Permission_to_.22Trade_On.22_the_Project_Gutenberg_name">Trademark Permission to "Trade On" the Project Gutenberg name</a></li>
<li><a href="#Crediting">Crediting</a></li>
<li><a href="#Linking">Linking</a></li>
<li><a href="#Project_Gutenberg_as_Publisher">Project Gutenberg as Publisher</a></li>
<li><a href="#Quotes_and_extracts_from_Project_Gutenberg_items">Quotes and extracts from Project Gutenberg items</a></li>
<li><a href="#Copyright_page_and_trademarks_from_Source">Copyright page and trademarks from Source</a></li>
<li><a href="#Citing_Project_Gutenberg">Citing Project Gutenberg</a></li>
<li><a href="#No_paperwork">No paperwork</a></li>
<li><a href="#US_only">US only</a></li>
<li><a href="#No_.22sweat_of_the_brow.22">No "sweat of the brow"</a></li>
<li><a href="#For_copyrighted_content">For copyrighted content</a></li>
<li><a href="#Commercial_use_of_Project_Gutenberg_trademark">15 Commercial use of Project Gutenberg trademark</a></li>
<li><a href="#Higher_resolution_images">Higher resolution images</a></li>
<li><a href="#More_details_on_items">More details on items</a></li>
<li><a href="#Reporting_errata">Reporting errata</a></li>
</ol>
</div>

## Project Gutenberg Permissions, Licensing and other Common Requests

## Overview

Project Gutenberg receives many requests for permissions to use eBooks, images from eBooks, or extracts. Most such requests are not needed, since permission is included in the items themselves (even for commercial use). This How-To provides responses to the most common inquiries. If your inquiry is not addressed, please email [Prof. Newby](/about/contact_information.html) with your permission requests. Responses are typically received within a day or so (or, re-send your request!). 

## Most permissions not needed
Most permission requests we receive did not need to be made. The vast majority of Project Gutenberg eBooks are in the public domain in the US. This means that nobody can grant, or withhold, permission to do with this item as you please. 

"As you please" includes any commercial use, republishing in any format, making derivative works or performances, etc. Read more about the public domain in [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain).

## Terms of Use
All use of the web site and content at www.gutenberg.org is subject to its Terms of Use. Find them on the main page of [/ www.gutenberg.org]. 

## Trademark Permission to "Trade On" the Project Gutenberg name
The name "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. The [/license Small Print License] guides terms of use. Basically, you need to pay royalties for commercial use (mentioned below). This restriction is mainly to prevent you selling things that might be mis-perceived as being sold and/or supported by Project Gutenberg, when Project Gutenberg has no involvement. It is intended to recognize the value of the Project Gutenberg name.

No permission is needed for non-commercial use. So, for example, you can freely redistribute any eBook, anywhere, any time, with or without the "Project Gutenberg" trademark included. The Small Print has more details. Note that if you are not in the US, you must confirm yourself whether an item is free to redistribute where you are. 

## Crediting
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## Linking
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To link to a specific eBook, link to the landing page for that eBook, not to specific files. So, for example, you would link to www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19033 rather than "deep linking" to the specific HTML, plain text, etc. www.gutenberg.org prohibits deep links automatically (based on the HTTP referrer), because from time to time the underlying structure of an eBook might change. 

## Project Gutenberg as Publisher
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Sometimes an eBook will include mention of its source, and even then, this is not intended in any way that our eBooks are identical to that source print book. 

## Quotes and extracts from Project Gutenberg items
No permission is needed to use quotes from Project Gutenberg items (in the US, this would be "fair use"). This applies for all use, including commercial use. In other words, no royalties are due for quotes even if they are used for commercial products.

It is always OK to cite Project Gutenberg as the publication source (see below for how to cite), and it is also OK to not cite Project Gutenberg: your choice. 

## Copyright page and trademarks from Source
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It is permitted, but not required, for our volunteer eBook producers to include front matter from print books they use.

## Citing Project Gutenberg
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Carroll, Lewis. (2006). Alice in Wonderland. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19033.

To cite the entire collection or Web site:

Project Gutenberg. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from www.gutenberg.org.

Of course, you should insert the actual year/date you accessed the item, and the actual year of your visit to the site. 

## No paperwork
Project Gutenberg does not fill out permission forms or otherwise grant permission for public domain items. That's what "public domain" means: nobody can grant permission.

We also do not process forms that somehow confirm non-copyright status. If you don't trust the statement in an eBook that an item is in the public domain in the US, then some sort of form from the same place (PG) that made the public domain determination would be meaningless! If you need further assurances or research that an item is in the public domain, we recommend you arrange for the research yourself, to your own specifications.

## US only
PG is entirely based in the US, and we follow the United States laws for copyright. Not all items that are public domain in the US are public domain in other countries, and vice versa. If you are operating outside of the US, you should get professional guidance on how to proceed for things like redistributing Project Gutenberg's content. For basic information about copyright elsewhere, try this link to the [Online books page](http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html). 

## No "sweat of the brow"
Project Gutenberg claims no copyright for markup, formatting, spelling modernization, etc., and neither can you (at least in the United States). See our [No Sweat of the Brow How-To](/how_to/no_sweat_copyright.html)

## For copyrighted content
There are thousands of items in the Project Gutenberg collection which are still under copyright protection. Each copyrighted item is clearly indicated as copyrighted in the eBook's header. Unless there is an included license with the copyrighted item (such as a creative commons license), you will need to contact the copyright holder for any needed permission. Project Gutenberg cannot do this on your behalf, and does not have any ability to sublicense copyrighted works.

## Commercial use of Project Gutenberg trademark
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If your commercial project has only a minor use of the Project Gutenberg trademark (for example, one PG eBook, and 9 from another source), then royalties are proportional. In this example of one in ten items from PG, you would pay only 1/10th of the royalties that would normally be due. 

In particular, this means that any attempt to claim copyright on a Project Gutenberg item that's in the public domain, even after you "add value," will be invalid. 

## Commercial use of Project Gutenberg trademark
If you use the Project Gutenberg name, which is a registered trademark, you need to pay royalties for any commercial use (i.e., where you are trading on the Project Gutenberg trademarked name). Terms are spelled out clearly in the license included with each eBook, or read it here: License How-To.

If your commercial project has only a minor use of the Project Gutenberg trademark (for example, one PG eBook, and 9 from another source), then royalties are proportional. In this example of one in ten items from PG, you would pay only 1/10th of the royalties that would normally be due.

## Higher resolution images
If you're looking for higher resolution versions of our scans, you will probably need to find your own original and make your own scan. Many Project Gutenberg volunteers produce our scans, and we have no good way to track them down in order to help you. The Distributed Proofreaders [PGDP](http://www.pgdp.net) has some online forums (free registration required) where you can inquire after items that came from that source. Each eBook that DP contributes has a credit to them at the start. 

## More details on items
Each eBook is complete and self-contained. If you want more information about an author, a publisher, the printed source(s) used, etc. and it's not in the eBook, we probably don't know either. Try another resource, such as your local librarian. Project Gutenberg does not enforce adherence of its eBooks to any particular print source. 

## Reporting errata
If you find an error, please report it to the [Errata Email address](/about/contact_information.html). Unfortunately there are many outstanding errata reports (because each report, even a trivial one, requires lots of research and often uncovers other errors to be investigated). Our automated system will hold your report until it can be attended to.