Re: [aspell-devel] Problems with aspell-en license

[Brian Nelson <nelson@bignachos.com>]

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!