What's in the "public domain" is quite subjective:
No it is not. The authors were payed by your tax dollar, therefore you have a right to see them.
They got no extra payment for writing the stuff, they would have got payed the same if they never produced any papers.
Then this "publishing house" grabs the "rights" to the contents and do not pay the authors.
If any theft has taken place it is by the publishers.
It is a totally different situation to someone distributing another persons music which I am dead against.