Altering public domain books for profit is very risky business - just ask Charles Darwin. . .

Charles Darwin died in 1882, 127 years ago. Wallace Waddles died in 1911 - 98 years ago.

Works of an author or artist pass into the public domain after they've been dead for 70 years. This makes these men's works fair game for anyone who wants to capitalize on their information. Once a work has transferred into the public domain, anyone can reprint the original work in any form they desire and profit from the newly created product.

Walk into any bookstore and there is a rack entitled 'The Classics' and on it are books such as Charles Dicken's Tale of Two Cities or The Collective Works of Shakespeare, etc. All of the books on this type of rack are books that are in the public domain. For the most part, the covers are bland, brown paper and it is assumed that the inside of the book is the classic referred to on the cover. What also is contained in almost every one of these books is a new recently written Foreword. The new addition to the book is the only piece of the work that is copyrightable, most likely because the author of the foreword is someone who is working to make a name for themselves in the literary field by creating commentary on classics. For the most part, these introductions add insight or historical reference, adding depth to the book to compliment it.

Recently, a well-known public domain book was re-released and the new Introduction was written by a group in an attempt to discredit the original author. They published his work with this new introduction and attempted to pass it off as the original work. The book was "On the Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin and now - some copies contain a 50 page introduction sponsored by the "Living Water's Ministry" where they are making an attempt to include Creationism inside Darwin's textbook. They insinuate racism, sexism and ties to Hitler in an attempt to discredit Darwin before the reader can read the original words. This is completely legal, but a very scary proposition. Colleges and universities need to be aware which version is an authentic version of Origin of the Species by specifying ISBN's very clearly on their class lists.

Many people have taken other works in the public domain and altered them to bring their message up-to-date. Such is the case for the Wallace Waddles book, the Science of Getting Rich. This book is a classic in the Human Potential movement, but when it is taught to a modern classroom, apologies are made for the language of Waddle's day. The main concern is that he referred to 'mankind' over 'humankind' and some call this exclusionist verbiage, or even sexist. This work was written in 1910 and many feel its message is still as relevant today, but many women can't get past the languaging. On the Internet, Waddles' book has been reprinted in its entirety, online, updated with gender inclusive language.

Obvious motives existed for both acts of altering or adding to a public domain work. Both were perfectly legal, one altered the original author's message and one was intended to expand the audience while maintaining the original author's message. The public domain inventory is growing by hundreds of titles daily and by the end of the next decade, even the works by authors who perished during the years of WWII will be in the public domain. When alteration of the original is legal, it is likely being done, so readers beware...