How We Choose Historic Texts

Current recorded inventory

516 books have rights notes recorded as public domain in the United States. 93 SWORD modules are specifically marked “Public Domain.” 7 other modules have Creative Commons licenses, which require attention to their actual attribution and other terms; we do not label those copyrighted, licensed editions as public domain.

These are existing source records, not new individual legal opinions. If edition-level evidence is uncertain, further copying or promotional reuse should be held pending review.

Required checks before a new import

1. Identify the exact title, author, translator, editor, publisher, original publication year and the source edition; do not rely on the author's date of death alone.
2. Record where the text was obtained, the specific rights evidence and its U.S. status. For works published after 1930 or edited later, verify the new material's rights separately.
3. Distinguish a public-domain underlying text from a third party's trademark, compilation, edition, protected images, annotations and music recordings.
4. For Creative Commons works, record the particular license and comply with attribution, share-alike and other requirements rather than pretending the work is unowned.
5. Check for scan and OCR errors. Verify sensitive quotations against the actual page or edition; never invent missing text to fill an OCR gap.
6. Publish honest title, author, source and edition metadata; preserve the original text's attribution and historical context. Do not present copied classic texts as newly authored ministry journalism.

Project Gutenberg and U.S. law

Project Gutenberg's license distinguishes texts unrestricted by U.S. copyright from the organization's trademark and licensing terms. Its website policy requires automated bulk downloaders to use mirrors rather than its main website. We will not scrape its public website for bulk imports.

The U.S. Copyright Office explains the public domain and other copyright exceptions. Copyright status outside the United States can differ, particularly for translations and later editions.

Historical context matters

We preserve influential writing as historical evidence, not blanket endorsement of its claims or conduct. Learning pages identify historical harms, including slavery, antisemitism and abusive church authority, rather than hiding those facts from readers.

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