[opto]

Looks like a great project, and one sorely needed by people like me who find themselves trying to get hold of old books they can't get in their local library and that are too expensive to buy secondhand.

[mariusor]

As far as I know Standard gets their raw ebooks from Project Gutenberg which has a vastly greater collection of public domain works. What they're doing is typesetting them for the average reader. But if all you're looking for is just the content, Gutenberg is the place to look for ethically clean copies.

[carlosjobim]

The shadow libraries such as Anna's Archive are a treasure trove of old books, and you're not breaking any imaginary law by downloading old books which are out of copyright.

[zozbot234]

If a book is out of copyright you can usually find the scan on Internet Archive. No need to look elsewhere at all.

[charcircuit]

The scans can have a different copyright date than the book itself.

[HexPhantom]

Tracking down older or out-of-print books can be weirdly frustrating, especially when prices for secondhand copies get absurd