Many are aware of the free—but unprintable—samizdat .pdf of Hardt & Negri's Empire squirreled away on the Internet; but re.press integrates free, downloadable .pdfs into its regular program. Explaining its particular philosphical focus, re.press states that it

aims to publish the best philosophical works available, whether these emerge from well-established or from previously unknown thinkers, whether they are from the North or the South, the East or the West, whether they are Platonists or Hegelians, materialists or idealists. True thought is global, universal, transformative, shredding ideologies and opinions like the statues of old dictators.

The handsome re.press publications do indeed live up to the publisher's claim that "our publications also maximize design values, boosting clarity and aesthetic qualities"—and of course one can easily judge for oneself by looking at any of their free downloadable books.

Among its offerings are

· a collection of English translations of Hegel's own Introductions to his works (Reading Hegel: The Introductions, edited and introduced by Aakash Singh and Rimina Mohapatra) [free .pdf];

· The Concept of Model, by Alain Badiou (edited and translated by Zachary Fraser and Tzuchien Tho) [free .pdf]; and

· The Charmed Circle of Ideology: A Critique of Laclau and Mouffe, Butler and Zizek, by Geoff Boucher.

A forthcoming title will be

· the first English translation of Hegel's Jena Philosophy of Nature - 'The Organics,' translated by Erich D. Freiberger.

re.press prints books in three basic series, namely, Anamnesis,
Transmission, and Anomaly, which the press describes as follows:

Anamnesis means remembrance or reminiscence, the collection and re-collection of what has been lost, forgotten, or effaced. It is therefore a matter of the very old, of what has made us who we are. But anamnesis is also a work that transforms its subject, always producing something new. To recollect the old, to produce the new: that is the task of Anamnesis. [Representative titles.]

Transmission denotes the transfer of information, objects or forces from one place to another, from one person to another. Transmission implies urgency, even emergency: a line humming, an alarm sounding, a messenger bearing news. Through Transmission interventions are supported, and opinions overturned. Transmission republishes classic works in philosophy, as it publishes works that re-examine classical philosophical thought.Transmission is the name for what takes place. [Representative titles.]

An anomaly deviates from a norm, is difficult to recognize or classify. Anomaly is a series which publishes heterodox, eccentric and heretical works. Mashing fact with fiction, poetry with philosophy, fish with fowl, Anomaly is a laboratory of unprecedented writings. [Representative titles.]

An Addendum on The Liberty Fund. From a somewhat different position, one could compare the Liberty Fund press, which also publishes physical books alongside free downloadable .pdfs on its Online Library of Liberty web site. Its catalog includes many classical philosophical works, which—like the publications of re.press—are handsomely designed with visually pleasing layouts (a particularly impressive example is the Liberty Fund's edition of the works of the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, such as their .pdf of Vol. I of his Charateristics of 1737).

The logo for the press is a cuneiform pictogram (amagi) for "freedom" or "liberty." The viewpoint of the foundation, especially given its highlighting of the work of Ludwig von Mises, seems to lean in the direction of libertarianism; as the web site states, the Liberty Fund, founded by Pierre F. Goodrich in 1960, "is intellectually and uncompromisingly committed to liberty" especially in order to counter the "hubris" of "restrictive institutional arrangements that concentrate political economic power" which "invariably erode liberty and moral values." In light of this commitment to liberty, freedom, and education, the fact that the Liberty Fund makes many of their works available for free as downloadable .pdfs is to be commended. However, these works (judging from a few titles sampled) are not distributed under the Open Access copyright, but rather under a standard copyright (most of the original works fell out of copyright long ago). It cannot be denied that much work has been done in the editing and layout of the works in question, nor can it be denied that the Liberty Fund provides an important public service by making the works available for free (not only as .pdfs but also as searchable HTML pages). Nonetheless, the fact that a for-profit press such as re.press offers many of its works not only for free but also under an Open Access copyright raises the question whether the commitment to the freedom of the individual to access information might be taken even further.