[bilinualcom]

OP here, it seems standardebooks doesn't provide the books in PDF format. My side project, https://www.bilinual.com rebuild the ebooks in PDF format with translation hints, if you don't mind about learning a new language while reading your favourite books ;)

[sethish]

There are about 400 GITenberg books that have CC-by licensed covers provided by Recovering the Classics. If you're interested in using that art for your PDFs I can find you the index!

[bilinualcom]

Thanks, it would be great. I am curious to know why do they have CC license and not public domain?

[robin_reala]

We have this problem with Standard Ebooks. The number of people that say things are public domain without actually checking it is very high. A CC0 licence is an explicit grant of public domain status by the licensor, and hence the legal issues rest with them in the event of any problem.

Public domain obviously can be ascertained, but if CC0 hasn’t been granted we rely on dated reproductions: basically a photograph of the artwork in question in a book or journal with a copyright date of 1924 or earlier.

(that’s obviously specifically a US legal reading, but SE from a legal point of view is a US project)

[maxerickson]

CC0 isn't an indemnity.

The difference between falsely claiming something is public domain and falsely claiming to grant a license to it under CC0 is going to be pretty minimal (and is likely result in little more than "please stop", blood and turnips and so on).