The Project Gutenberg eBook of Alias Napoleon
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Alias Napoleon
Author: John Jakes
Illustrator: Rudy Nappi
Release date: September 28, 2026 [eBook #79669]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: Republic Features Syndicate, Inc., 1956
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79669
Credits: Tom Trussel - Stories of Futures Past (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALIAS NAPOLEON ***
Alias Napoleon
by John Jakes
Jack Morris did not have an imaginative mind. This fact had never
bothered him, for once he had bought the Wax Works pitch from an
aging carny who had to go to Arizona for his health, he didn’t need
imagination. He made a good living as good livings went in his scale of
values, and in especially good seasons he even had enough money left
over from running expenses for a week-end in a Miami Beach hotel. If
Jack Morris had been imaginative, he might have taken a rowboat down
the Colorado or gone seal-hunting in the Bering Straits. But he didn’t
give a particular damn about such exotic activities. Unimaginatively,
he went to Miami Beach which as far as he knew was synonymous with
exotic living.
What if Jack Morris _had_ been equipped with an imagination that
flourished and rioted with strange schemes and non-prosaic images?
Would things have been any different? Perhaps. For instance, on that
warm July night, when the carny was staked out on the eastern city
limits of Peelsville, Illinois, with plenty of cash in the till from
Thursday night and more to come as the marks flooded in tonight,
Friday, and best of all, tomorrow, Sunday ... well, for instance, if
you take that night....
It’s useless. Jack Morris was Jack Morris. A medium-tall man of
thirty-five, married once, now divorced, a carny to the core, with a
taste for checked vests, nickel cigars and redheads.
On this particular Friday night, around twilight, with about twenty
minutes till the gates opened, Jack Morris was returning to his pitch
from supper. By his side, standing only to his waist, strode Major
Mite, a salty little character who sported a copy of the Police Gazette
in his hip pocket. The carny had been lighted, the bulbs firing the
night with a hundred different colors stretched in gleaming chains
between the tents. The sawdust smell rose like perfume and people moved
in and out of the tents in that hurried stir of excitement before the
marks were let onto the lot.
The sky in the west displayed a narrow band of orange light, and the
rest of the heavens had long since purpled with here and there a star
shining. Jack Morris walked along, hands in his pockets, a cigar in his
mouth. Major Mite was whistling a melancholy tune when all of a sudden,
Jack Morris said, “For Gods sake!” softly.
“What’s up?” piped Major Mite.
“D’ja see it?” Morris asked.
“What? See what?” complained the Major, his voice rising slightly
and his tiny face screwed into a daemonic scowl. Jack Morris decided
(unimaginatively) that there was nothing to get so excited about.
“Ah,” he said. “It was just a shooting star, I guess.”
“Is _that_ all?” Major Mite complained loudly.
Morris laughed. “Yeah. Kind of surprised me for a minute, I guess,
looking up and seeing it there. Kind of pretty, too. I thought it had
a green tail on it,” he added softly, mostly to himself, because he
thought Major Mite would probably laugh if he heard it.
Major Mite _did_ hear it, and laughed. “Take it easy, Jack. Shooting
stars don’t have green tails. Not the ones that I ever saw!”
They had arrived at the Morris pitch, so Jack stopped by the tent flap.
He thought about the shooting star. Funny, he thought. Eyes playing
tricks. I could of swore it landed in those trees a couple of miles
back. The light went out just before the thing reached the trees.
_Nuts!_ Shooting stars don’t have green tails, he thought derisively.
Must of been them beans I ate. Have to tell cookie where to get off
tomorrow.
“You better lay off the stuff, Jack,” Major Mite declared chirrupingly.
“Sure, sure,” Jack said amiably. “I’ll do that.”
“So long,” called the Major, striding aggressively down the midway
toward the sideshow tent.
Jack Morris rolled his cigar around in his fingers and decided he’d
better quit goofing off or he wouldn’t have any dough in the till when
the night was over. The lights were on in front of his tent, and he
glanced in admiration at the lurid sign over the entrance. _Chamber
of Marvels! Gallery of Famous Folk! The Amazing Wax Works of Dr.
Stephanovich, Imported from London_, England. Who Dr. Stephanovich was,
Jack Morris didn’t know. He also didn’t know whether or not the figures
inside the tent had ever been in London, England. He cared less. It was
a good pitch.
Morris passed around the tent into his own private top, there putting
on his straw hat and his light blue jacket. Then he turned on the
lights in the main tent, ducked under the flap and inside. The lighting
was subdued, with small floor spots focused up on the faces of the
dummies. In the near-gloom, the noises and the strident calliope music
of the midway seemed far away. Jack Morris even shivered at the grisly
likenesses reproduced in pale yellowish wax. There was Ghengiz Kahn,
and a prehistoric man with a blow pipe (empty, of course) and John
Dillinger, crouched low, a savage expression on his wax features,
a wicked looking (fake) gun in one balled fist. There was Napoleon
Bonaparte, hat on head, hand within coat, staring out petulantly from
sightless wax eyes. Some half a dozen more, including a Frankenstein
monster with green-tinted wax skin. A good pitch....
Suddenly Jack Morris heard the tent flap stir. He turned, a bit
nervously. The flap was vibrating faintly as if someone had come in
off the midway. Morris stared fixedly at the flap for a moment. No one
had come in. He heard a strange nearly imperceptible buzzing in his
ears, and it seemed to him that he saw a thin veil of smoke floating
just inside the flap itself. He looked away, then back. The smoke was
no more. What the hell! Jack Morris thought. Either somebody looked
in who was smoking a cigarette, or else it was the wind. He started
out of the tent just as somebody ran by on the midway shouting, “We’re
opening!” Jack Morris hastened outside to get into position behind
his spiel booth. He whispered into his microphone, heard the raspy
reverberation of his voice in the portable speaker, and peered down the
lighted midway to where the first of the marks were pouring eagerly
through the gate. Arnie, across the way, was already spinning his
wheel, clickety-clickety-clickety, around and around, wetting his lips
in expectation. It was a perfectly still, warm night. There was no wind
blowing....
“All right ladies and gentlemen step right up and see the famous Wax
Works, sights of history to thrill you, to chill you, to fill your
heart with wonder amazement and amusement for the price of fifteen
cents, one thin dime plus one thin nickel come on step right up
here....”
He had a good crowd, a steady flow of customers. The little boy
accosted him at just past nine-thirty, coming out of the tent with a
group of marks who commented on the exhibits they had just seen. The
little boy grabbed Morris’s sleeve belligerently, but his eyes were
frightened, though Jack Morris never noticed this.
“Hey, hey, mister,” the boy complained.
“What you want, kid?”
“There’s somebody _alive_ in there.”
“Sure, kid,” Jack Morris laughed. “The more live ones come in, the more
I like it.”
The boy was close to tears. He shook his head stoutly. “No, I don’t
mean _that_. I mean there’s somebody _alive_ in one of those statues.”
“Ah, go on,” Jack Morris said good-naturedly. “You’re pulling my leg.”
“No I’m not!” the little boy exclaimed. “I could see him inside that
Bone Party guy, or whatever his name was. I could see him _looking_, I
looked at his eyes and he looked right back at me.”
Jack Morris frowned at the little boy. “Kid you’ve had too much....”
“Rooooger!” shrilled a female voice. The voice became a woman who
dragged the boy away, but not before he could turn terrified, anguished
eyes on Jack Morris, and cry, “He’s alive, in there, in Bone Party,
looking out. I _saw_ him....”
Morris sniggered to himself. Crazy kids. Get a bellyache from too much
crackerjack and start seeing things....
(Imagination? The little boy had it. How many others who went into the
Wax Works that night saw what the little boy saw, and imagined? How
many were afraid to say anything about it, to their mothers, to their
wives, their children, afraid to be laughed at, ridiculed? How many? No
one will ever know. The little boy saw it. The little boy imagined, and
spoke it aloud....)
The crowds began to slack off around eleven. At twelve-thirty the lot
closed down and Jack Morris turned out the lights in the top and went
over to the manager’s trailer for a few games of pinochle and a few
beers, the party breaking up at around one-thirty. Flashlight in hand,
Jack Morris made his way back to his top accompanied again by Major
Mite.
“See any more green stars?” the Major jeered, reeling slightly from an
excess of alcohol.
“Ah, cut it out,” Jack Morris said. Then he remembered the little boy.
“I got something better than that. A kid was in the pitch tonight who
thought the statue of Napoleon was alive ... get that, will you? Alive!”
“Pretty stupid, all right,” the Major agreed. Jack Morris yawned and as
the Major flung a last taunt about green stars and vanished down the
darkened midway, Morris lifted the front flap of the tent and walked
inside, intent on having a last look at the exhibits, as he did every
night, to see whether or not any marks had fooled around with the wax
figures while he was not watching. His flashlight bored a beam through
the darkness ahead of him, and suddenly a wisp of smoke darted through
the beam, twisting and twirling in mid-air. Jack Morris gasped. The
smoky whorl rotated confusedly in the air for a moment, glimmering with
small pin-points of greenish light. Then it darted. That was the only
word for it. Morris followed its darting to the right with the flash
beam. The light fell upon the childish head of Napoleon Bonaparte.
“For God’s sake....” Jack Morris breathed.
The smoky whorl danced around the head of Napoleon Bonaparte, then
seemed to fuse toward and into and through the wax, and Jack Morris
could have sworn that the dead eyes of Bonaparte were alive with
coruscating bits of greenish fire. _Something_, Jack Morris knew, was
inside that wax figure! He shined the flash beam straight into the eyes
and he saw them whirl and dissolve and solidify again with a pattern of
winking green lights.
Jack Morris was apprehensive, even a little afraid. No man would have
been otherwise. But he was not completely terrified by any means. He
took a firm grip on the flash and said rather loudly, “Who are you?”
He thought he heard a laugh. My God, he thought, the laugh was _inside_
my head, too. The little lad was right. But this is nuts, something
talking inside my head.
“Come on,” he said, “who are you?”
A name was repeated within his mind, a name that meant nothing to him.
The voice was small, cruel, dry and mocking. “I was foolish,” the voice
said. “Unaccustomed as I am to these strange surroundings, I didn’t
expect you back. I’ve been looking around.”
“What ... what are you doing in Napoleon?” Jack Morris asked. The mind
within his mind was a little bit frightening, like the brush of a dead
finger across a forehead.
“Looking,” the voice replied.
“Looking?” echoed Morris.
“Looking,” the voice confirmed. “I’ve been looking all evening. This is
a good place from which to look. Most of your people can’t see me, or
if they can, they won’t say that they can.”
“What are you looking for?” Morris asked. He felt the cold rings of
sweat beneath his arms now, and the silence of the dead carny lot, and
the night world outside, and for some reason fear seemed to come a
little easier, and he could almost hear each drop of sweat roll down
his chest like the tick of a clock.
“I’m not looking _for_ anything,” replied the voice in the mind of Jack
Morris that came from the head of Napoleon Bonaparte. “I’m studying.
I want to get to know your people rather well, before....” Again the
small laugh.
“Listen,” Morris blustered. “Who the hell are you?”
“But I already told you!” The name was repeated.
“I don’t understand that. Where are you from?”
This time there came a second name. Jack Morris made an angry
gesture with the flashlight. “I don’t speak nothing but English!” he
half-shouted.
“Then I suppose I must translate,” replied the voice mockingly. Green
fire danced and sparkled within the eyes of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor
of France and master of the world, standing near Peelsville, Illinois
in all his wax-yellow majesty, hat on head, hand within coat....
_Mars!_ shouted Jack Morris. _Mars!_
“That is correct,” the voice replied.
“I don’t believe you. Damn it, _I don’t believe you!_”
“That’s no concern of mine,” replied the voice casually.
“How ... how did you get here?”
“In a ship.”
“What kind of a ship?” Jack Morris felt that if he put enough questions
to the peculiar dry voice, it would get frightened and go away, or else
he would wake up in a couple of minutes. Sure, _that_ was it. One too
many beers in the manager’s trailer. Got to quit having so many beers.
Beers make you fat, beers work hell with the kidneys. Right now a
couple of the boys are lugging you down the midway because you had one
too many crappy beers....
In the eyes of Napoleon Bonaparte, green comets.
Jack Morris knew he did not dream. He wiped away the sweat from his
forehead with one equally wet palm. It would not be true to say
that Jack Morris was not frightened. He was. But the most important
motivating factor of the moment was his inward distrust of people not
his kind. _Mars_, eh? A crazy foreign somebody who had to be feared
because he was foreign. Jack Morris felt a heightening of temporary
courage within him.
“Perhaps you saw my ship,” the voice replied. “Let me see....”
“_Hey!_ What the hell are you doing?” It was as if a cold knife blade
were inserted into the gray folds of his brain.
“Merely looking into your mind.” The cold knife went away. “Yes, you
saw my ship. You thought it was a falling star, with a green tail. I
destroyed it when I landed in the woods not far from here.”
Things were getting too much for Jack Morris. “What the hell do you
think you are, coming in and lousing up my show? A lousy little bunch
of fog and green stuff, that’s all!” He tried to sound confident,
cocky and bold. Inwardly he was quaking with distrust and fear of the
foreigner.
“I have power,” the voice replied with cool deadliness.
“I don’t believe it!” Jack Morris shot back.
“Watch!” said the voice. Jack Morris turned his head slightly. He
heard a vibrating whirr, a zipping sound, and then a small _thud_. The
blow pipe placed to the lips of the prehistoric man shook gently, and
Ghengiz Khan, directly opposite the prehistoric man, had a small round
hole in his belly.
Jack Morris stared at the two wax figures for a moment, bewildered.
Then the actual terror began to take hold of him. He looked from blow
pipe to hole, hole to blow pipe, and back. “I’m crazy,” he whispered,
“I’m going nuts.”
“You’re not crazy,” the voice replied. “I merely wanted to show you
that I have power.”
“There’s nothing in that blow gun!”
“There’s energy.”
“Energy!” Morris whispered hoarsely. “What the hell is energy?”
“What I control,” replied the voice. “What I can use to make dead
matter live and obey my will. See.” And Napoleon Bonaparte nodded his
head twice, up and down, slowly, and the green lights did a frenzied
dance in the eye sockets.
“I don’t know what energy is,” Jack Morris babbled. He was thoroughly
frightened now. “I don’t know what it is.”
The laugh of the voice in his mind sounded brittle and contemptuous.
Somehow Jack Morris identified that sound, and it pierced through his
mounting terror and held that terror in check for a moment. The voice
was laughing, jeering, sneering at him and he didn’t like it.
“What’s so goddamned funny?” he snarled.
“If all your people are as foolish as you,” the voice said, “it will be
easy.”
Somehow the ominous emphasis of the word _it_ penetrated the dazed,
confused and angry mind of Jack Morris. “What will be easy? What are
you talking about?”
“The subjugation of Earth.”
“Sub ... sub....”
“Conquest.”
“Con....”
“We’re taking over.” And it had the cold, dry, final sound of authority.
Jack Morris began to chuckle softly. Then he began to laugh. Then he
rocked back and forth, howling softly with glee. Come on, boys, wake me
up, douse me with some water, I had too many beers. Oh my God, this is
rich, this is the funniest damned thing, I guess it must be the DT’s.
Come on, boys, I didn’t know you could get DT’s from beers, but throw
the bucket on me, I had too many.
The voice buzzed angrily within the mind of Jack Morris. “You don’t
believe me? You stupid thing. You don’t _believe_ me? I’ll _show_ you!”
The world shot away, the carny tent and Bonaparte went screaming down a
swirling vortex of night and Jack Morris grew swollen, balooned across
the world and saw with the thousand, the million eyes of a strange
and alien mind. Hundreds, millions of green shooting stars fell down,
one after another, and small whorls of smoke fused with toasters and
automobile headlights, with motion picture camera lenses and fountain
pens, with bed posts and with school books, with department store
mannequins and television tubes, eyes, watching, eyes all over the
world, eyes of the invader watching, learning, discovering weakness,
watching, planning, while in the black spaces far out more green stars
gathered and more and more and on earth the eyes watched and observed
and remembered and planned and made ready and watched ... and observed
... and remembered ... and....
Jack Morris dropped his flashlight. He pressed his hands against
his eyes. He wanted to scream. Then a thought came to him. He had
imagination now, the voice and the mind of the alien had filled his
mind with imagination, and he saw the world beaten and taken over
and....
“You see?” the voice whispered.
“Christ....” Jack Morris said. “_Christ_....”
The voice had lost its tone of anger now. The coruscating bits of
fire in the eyes of Napoleon Bonaparte glittered less fiercely. “It’s
unfortunate that you had to discover me,” the voice said, “but I think
we can get along. I’ll travel with you in here, and watch, and of
course you won’t say anything.” The voice hesitated. “I suppose one
mistake is to be expected when there are so many of us trying something
so new....”
Beyond the tent walls, Jack Morris knew, lay the world....
“I’ve got to warn them!” he cried hoarsely.
“Stop!” said the voice.
“I’ve got to warn them!” Morris shouted again, forcing his feet to
move. The voice buzzed angrily, excitedly and he turned away from
Napoleon and stumbled through the darkness toward the tent flap. The
fallen flashlight threw grotesque shadows on the leering face of John
Dillinger.
“Got to ... got to....” Jack Morris breathed crazily. It seemed miles
to the outside, miles, but he had to go, had to get out. The thing
had shown him what they were going to do, and unless he, Jack Morris,
warned the people....
“_Got to_....” The breath tore savagely out of his mouth.
“I have power!” said the voice warningly.
“_Got to_....”
A scream rose to the throat of Jack Morris, remaining there soundless,
as the air filled with whirling screaming points of green fire and John
Dillinger shot Jack Morris to death.
Transcriber’s Note:
This etext was produced from Tales of the Frightened, Spring 1957
(vol. 1, no. 1). Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Obvious errors have been silently corrected in this version, but
minor inconsistencies have been retained as printed.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALIAS NAPOLEON ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.
Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™
concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may
do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
license, especially commercial redistribution.
START: FULL LICENSE
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg
electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
of Project Gutenberg electronic works. Nearly all the individual
works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
that you will support the Project Gutenberg mission of promoting
free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg
works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
Project Gutenberg name associated with the work. You can easily
comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg License when
you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
other Project Gutenberg work. The Foundation makes no
representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
country other than the United States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg License must appear
prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg work (any work
on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the
phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed,
performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg™ License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is
derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg
trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg License for all works
posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg work in a format
other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official
version posted on the official Project Gutenberg website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg electronic works
provided that:
• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
to the owner of the Project Gutenberg trademark, but he has
agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation.”
• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™
works.
• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
receipt of the work.
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than
are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
cannot be read by your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
without further opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in
accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
or any Project Gutenberg work, (b) alteration, modification, or
additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg work, and (c) any
Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
from people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg’s
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg and future
generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.
The Foundation’s business office is located at 41 Watchung Plaza #516,
Montclair NJ 07042, USA, +1 (862) 621-9288. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website
and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg eBooks with only a loose network of
volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
edition.
Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.
This website includes information about Project Gutenberg,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
