Reading Lamp is a browsing room, not a library. Every title here is public domain or openly licensed, and we just point you to the legitimate site that actually hosts it.
This site is a discovery layer only. It does not host, store, mirror, or serve any book file, and it never will.
Most titles here have expired copyright, typically because the author died 70+ years ago or the U.S. copyright term lapsed, and are free to read, copy, and redistribute anywhere in the world.
A few newer works are included only if the author or publisher explicitly released them under an open license, like Creative Commons, that permits free redistribution.
Every "Read at" button sends you to the original source: Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, the Internet Archive, Open Library, LibriVox, or Wikisource. Nothing is proxied or embedded.
Public domain status here is generally based on U.S. law. A handful of countries have longer or shorter terms, so if you're outside the U.S., it's worth a quick check before redistributing a title yourself.
The sources we link out to: