Re: [aspell-devel] Problems with aspell-en license
Kevin Atkinson <kevina@gnu.org> writes:
> On Sat, 19 Oct 2002, Brian Nelson wrote:
>
>> I'm working on packaging the new upstream GNU/aspell, and I've
>> discovered a problem with the (attached) license of the English
>> dictionary. The license, which is a mishmash of mostly free licenses,is
>> not DFSG free as I understand it due to the DEC Word list license
>> (beginning on line 134).
>
> RMS said the word lists were OK. Here is what he said to me. You can
> email him for confirmation:
>
> I think it is safe for us to use those wordlists. The person who
> avoided texts marked "copyright" was operating under an erroneous idea
> of how copyright law works, but if all he did with those texts was make
> word lists, this should not be a problem anyway.
If these wordlists have been deemed free for any use, then the copyright
should be changed. To me, a license that states,
"To the best of my knowledge, all the files I used to build these
wordlists were available for public distribution and use, at least for
non-commercial purposes,"
isn't a really license at all since it doesn't grant a user any clear
rights. IANAL, of course.
--
People said I was dumb, but I proved them!
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