Ebook collections
The OLPC eBook Collection holds a definitive compilation of more than 1,000 of the world's finest children's literary works. This collection is provided by World Public Library as a free public service and each of the eBooks are completely unabridged specifically designed to bring children a truly enjoyable reading experience with full-page color illustrations of the original works.
No FEE REQUIRED to access the OLPC Collection, http://SchoolLibrary.com/OLPC_Collection.htm
However, these books are not freely available. Even the books that are wholly in the public domain have been "re-copyrighted" by the "World Public Library" (or so they claim), and issued with a license that prevents their further redistribution. OLPC should not be using these poorly-licensed editions. Without a special contract with the World Public Library, OLPC would not be able to put these books on the XO laptops, or on the school servers; nor would the children be able to email or otherwise share these books with anyone else. As the books themselves say, "Prohibited distribution includes any service that offers this file for download or commercial distribution in any form."
There are better sources for most of these books, which offer the children true freedom rather than just a low price. For example, compare the copyrighted PDF from the World Public Library: http://schoollibrary.com/eBooks/OLPC_Collection/Beauty_Beast_and_Other_Stories.pdf with the Internet Archive's public domain scan of a similar retelling of the story: http://www.archive.org/details/beautythebeast00cinciala
Links to this Content Provider
The OLPC eBook Collection is produced by joint cooperation of Project Gutenberg Consortia Center and The World Public Library.
