Copyright of 1913 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
I am packaging the client server software produced by the DICT
Project, which is under the GPL. I am not sure if the dictionary
databases that are used with these programs should be packaged or not.
(They are available for downloading from the net, and may be accessed
with the client software.)
I will post more specifics later, and ask the developer community
to recommend if they should or should not be packaged. First,
however, I would like to consider their copyright.
Most of the databases seem to satisfy the DFSG. However, the
most important of these, the 1913 Webster's Unabridged dictionary, is
questionable. Following is its copyright notice:
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Version published 1913
by the C. & G. Merriam Co.
Springfield, Mass.
Under the direction of
Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D.
This version is copyrighted (C) 1996, 1998 by MICRA,
Inc. of Plainfield, NJ.
Last edit February 3, 1998.
This electronic version may be used freely for personal
use or for research, and may be freely distributed provided
that the entire set of files are copied, and the headers
and copyright notices are not modified or deleted.
The inclusion of more than one per cent of the text of
this dictionary in a product for sale requires the express
written permission of MICRA Inc. Sale of entire copies,
including all headers and copyright notices, will not be
considered a violation of this provision.
It is most unlikely that anyone would want to include more than
1% and less than 100% of this in a derived work, for sale or
otherwise. However, I believe that this provision violates the DFSG,
so that, if packaged, it would go into non-free.
Comments, please.
--
_
|_) _ |_ Robert D. Hilliard <hilliard@metrolink.net>
|_) (_) |_) Palm City, FL USA PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9
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