Copyright & Public Domain Governance
Bookarium is engineered with an unwavering commitment to cultural preservation and international copyright compliance: 100% public domain literature, multi-jurisdiction legal clearance, and strict adherence to Project Gutenberg policies.
1. 100% CC0 & Public Domain Manifesto
Universal Cultural Heritage & Zero DRM
Every volume indexed in Bookarium is part of the global cultural commons. We strictly query and ingest catalog data with copyright=false. There are zero digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, zero paywalls, zero advertisements, and zero reader subscriptions.
Universal Reading Liberty: You are free to read, download, annotate, research, and format these masterworks across all devices. Literature that has entered the public domain belongs collectively to all humankind.
2. Multi-Jurisdiction Copyright Matrix
Berne Convention & Territorial Duration Rules
Under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, copyright protection is strictly territorial. A work that is in the public domain in one nation may still be subject to statutory protection in another:
Project Gutenberg operates under United States copyright law. Pre-1978 published works enter the US public domain 95 years after original publication. All titles published before January 1, 1930 are in the US public domain.
Directive 2006/116/EC (and UK/Canada/Australia statutes) establishes copyright for the author's lifetime plus 70 calendar years, expiring on January 1 following the 70th anniversary of the author's death.
Colombia and Spain (for authors deceased prior to December 7, 1987) enforce an 80-year post-mortem protection term. Bookarium respects these extended terms for visitors from these jurisdictions.
Mexico enforces the world's longest general copyright duration of 100 years post-mortem. Works by authors deceased after 1925 remain protected in Mexico until at least 2026.
Joint Authorship (Berne Convention Art. 7bis): For collaborative works created by two or more authors, the copyright term is calculated exclusively from the death of the last surviving author.
Translations & Derivative Works (Berne Convention Art. 2(3)): Translations receive independent copyright protection. An ancient classic (e.g. Homer, Dante, or Sun Tzu) is in the worldwide public domain, but a modern translation remains restricted until 70 years after the translator's death. Bookarium parses translator metadata to prevent premature streaming of copyrighted translations.
3. Project Gutenberg Archive Compliance
Robot Access Policy & Terms of Use Adherence
Bookarium is designed to be an exemplary downstream citizen of the Project Gutenberg Archive , strictly abiding by its published Robot Access Policy and Terms of Use :
- Zero Automated Scraping: Bookarium never runs scrapers, spiders, or automated crawlers against
www.gutenberg.org. - Decoupled Architecture: All user catalog browsing, keyword searches, and subject facets are served via the Gutendex REST API and our regional Supabase cache, completely shielding Gutenberg origin servers from discovery traffic.
- Official Bulk Data Feeds: Catalog indexes are synchronized using Gutenberg's authorized weekly catalog archives (
pg_catalog.csv.gz). - Bandwidth Shielding & Edge Caching: Masterwork text and EPUB packages are cached at the Vercel Edge CDN for 24 hours (
s-maxage=86400, stale-while-revalidate=604800) and locally in browser IndexedDB for offline reading. Direct downloads are strictly human-initiated. - Transparent User-Agent: All server-side requests transmit identifying headers (
Bookarium/2.5.1 (+https://github.com/calin-m/Bookarium)). - Trademark & Non-Commercialization: Bookarium operates non-commercially with zero advertisements or subscription fees. Bookarium is an independent open-source reader and is not officially affiliated with or endorsed by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF).
4. HTTP 451: Unavailable For Legal Reasons
RFC 7725 Territorial Enforcement & Fail-Closed Heuristics
When a title cleared in the United States remains under copyright protection in your country (such as an author who died between 1956 and 1970 in an EU Life+70 state), Bookarium halts the reader and returns standard HTTP 451: Unavailable For Legal Reasons.
Privacy-First Functional Verification: Edge routers inspect non-identifying country headers (CF-IPCountry / x-vercel-ip-country) to set the functional cookie bookarium-geo-country. No IP addresses, user locations, or reading habits are ever logged, tracked, or stored.
Fail-Closed Longevity Heuristic: If author or translator death dates cannot be verified with mathematical certainty from authoritative national libraries, Bookarium conservatively withholds modern titles in Life+70/80/100 jurisdictions to guarantee zero infringement.
5. Notice & Takedown Protocol
Copyright Holder Inquiries & Rapid Resolution
Bookarium respects the legitimate rights of authors, translators, and literary estates. If you are a copyright holder or authorized representative and believe that a volume or translation has been made available in a jurisdiction where it remains protected:
Submit notices, DMCA notifications, public domain verification queries, or general inquiries confidentially without creating a public developer account.
Please provide the following details in your notice:
- Identification of the copyrighted work and specific Bookarium/Gutenberg ID.
- Jurisdiction(s) in which copyright is asserted and author/translator date of death.
- Evidence of ownership or legal authorization from the author or estate.
- Your contact name, email address, and physical or electronic signature.
For confidential inquiries, copyright notices, and estate verification, please use our Official Intake Form . For open-source technical issues or bug reports, you may also open a ticket on our GitHub Repository Issue Tracker . Valid notices are investigated and resolved within 24 to 48 hours.
6. Open Cultural Preservation Partners
Upstream Archives & Digital Commons
The original digital library founded by Michael S. Hart in 1971, curating over 70,000 public domain ebooks.
Open-source REST API providing decoupled, high-performance catalog search and metadata retrieval.
Volunteer-driven project producing beautifully formatted, modern digital editions of public domain masterworks.
Last Updated: March 2026 • Verified Public Domain Preservation