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).
The version of aspell-en currently in the archives is also licensed under this non-free license, but the package's copyright file falsely states it's licensed under the LGPL. That's bad. With the release of aspell 0.50, the English dictionary has been packaged separately. However, prior to 0.50, this English dictionary was distributed with the aspell source tarball. This is true for the version of aspell currently in the Debian archives. Would this license contaminate the whole aspell source package and thus make aspell, aspell-doc, aspell-en, libaspell-dev, libaspell10, libaspell4 non-distributable? It's not clear to me because the license is so vague, and also because I'm not familiar with license issues regarding source packages. I'll get in contact with upstream about packaging a DFSG-free version of the English dictionary. But, in the meantime, I think the aspell-en package, and possibly all of aspell, should be removed from the Debian archives. -- People said I was dumb, but I proved them!
This english word list is comes directly from SCOWL (up to level 65) (http://wordlist.sourceforge.net/) and is thus under the same copyright of SCOWL. The SCOWL copyright follows: The collective work is Copyright 2000 by Kevin Atkinson as well as any of the copyrights mentioned below: Copyright 2001 by Kevin Atkinson Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell these word lists, the associated scripts, the output created from the scripts, and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. Kevin Atkinson makes no representations about the suitability of this array for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. Alan Beale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> also deserves special credit as he has, in addition to providing the 12Dicts package and being a major contributor to the ENABLE word list, given me an incredible amount of feedback and created a number of special lists (those found in the Supplement) in order to help improve the overall quality of SCOWL. The 10 level includes the 1000 most common English words (according to the Moby (TM) Words II [MWords] package), a subset of the 1000 most common words on the Internet (again, according to Moby Words II), and frequently class 16 from Brian Kelk's "UK English Wordlist with Frequency Classification". The MWords package was explicitly placed in the public domain: The Moby lexicon project is complete and has been place into the public domain. Use, sell, rework, excerpt and use in any way on any platform. Placing this material on internal or public servers is also encouraged. The compiler is not aware of any export restrictions so freely distribute world-wide. You can verify the public domain status by contacting Grady Ward 3449 Martha Ct. Arcata, CA 95521-4884 [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] The "UK English Wordlist With Frequency Classification" is also in the Public Domain: Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2000 20:27:21 +0100 From: Brian Kelk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I was wondering what the copyright status of your "UK English > Wordlist With Frequency Classification" word list as it seems to > be lacking any copyright notice. There were many many sources in total, but any text marked "copyright" was avoided. Locally-written documentation was one source. An earlier version of the list resided in a filespace called PUBLIC on the University mainframe, because it was considered public domain. Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 19:31:34 +0100 > So are you saying your word list is also in the public domain? That is the intention. The 20 level includes frequency classes 7-15 from Brian's word list. The 35 level includes frequency classes 2-6 and words appearing in at least 11 of 12 dictionaries as indicated in the 12Dicts package. All words from the 12Dicts package have had likely inflections added via my inflection database. The 12Dicts package and Supplement is in the Public Domain. The WordNet database, which was used in the creation of the Inflections database, is under the following copyright: This software and database is being provided to you, the LICENSEE, by Princeton University under the following license. By obtaining, using and/or copying this software and database, you agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with these terms and conditions.: Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and database and its documentation for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you agree to comply with the following copyright notice and statements, including the disclaimer, and that the same appear on ALL copies of the software, database and documentation, including modifications that you make for internal use or for distribution. WordNet 1.6 Copyright 1997 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. THIS SOFTWARE AND DATABASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND PRINCETON UNIVERSITY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. BY WAY OF EXAMPLE, BUT NOT LIMITATION, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT- ABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR THAT THE USE OF THE LICENSED SOFTWARE, DATABASE OR DOCUMENTATION WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS. The name of Princeton University or Princeton may not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software and/or database. Title to copyright in this software, database and any associated documentation shall at all times remain with Princeton University and LICENSEE agrees to preserve same. The 50 level includes Brian's frequency class 1, words words appearing in at least 5 of 12 of the dictionaries as indicated in the 12Dicts package, and uppercase words in at least 4 of the previous 12 dictionaries. A decent number of proper names is also included: The top 1000 male, female, and Last names from the 1990 Census report; a list of names sent to me by Alan Beale; and a few names that I added myself. Finally a small list of abbreviations not commonly found in other word lists is included. The name files form the Census report is a government document which I don't think can be copyrighted. The name list from Alan Beale is also derived from the linux words list, which is derived from the DEC list. He also added a bunch of miscellaneous names to the list, which he released to the Public Domain. The DEC Word list doesn't have a formal name. It is labeled as "FILE: english.words; VERSION: DEC-SRC-92-04-05" and was put together by Jorge Stolfi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> DEC Systems Research Center. The DEC Word list has the following copyright statement: (NON-)COPYRIGHT STATUS 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. I have confirmed this assumption with the authors of the lists, whenever they were known. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the wordlists in this package can also be freely copied, distributed, modified, and used for personal, educational, and research purposes. (Use of these files in commercial products may require written permission from DEC and/or the authors of the original lists.) Whenever you distribute any of these wordlists, please distribute also the accompanying README file. If you distribute a modified copy of one of these wordlists, please include the original README file with a note explaining your modifications. Your users will surely appreciate that. (NO-)WARRANTY DISCLAIMER These files, like the original wordlists on which they are based, are still very incomplete, uneven, and inconsitent, and probably contain many errors. They are offered "as is" without any warranty of correctness or fitness for any particular purpose. Neither I nor my employer can be held responsible for any losses or damages that may result from their use. However since this Word List is used in the linux.words package which the author claims is free of any copyright I assume it is OK to use for most purposes. If you want to use this in a commercial project and this concerns you the information from the DEC word list can easily be removed without much sacrifice in quality as only the name lists were used. The file special-jargon.50 uses common.lst and word.lst from the "Unofficial Jargon File Word Lists" which is derived from "The Jargon File". All of which is in the Public Domain. This file also contain a few extra UNIX terms which are found in the file "unix-terms" in the special/ directory. The 60 level includes Brian's frequency class 0 and all words appearing in at least 2 of the 12 dictionaries as indicated by the 12Dicts package. A large number of names are also included: The 4,946 female names and 3,897 male names from the MWords package and the files "computer.names", "misc.names", and "org.names" from the DEC package. The 65 level includes words found in the Ispell "medium" word list. The Ispell word lists are under the same copyright of Ispell itself which is: Copyright 1993, Geoff Kuenning, Granada Hills, CA All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. All modifications to the source code must be clearly marked as such. Binary redistributions based on modified source code must be clearly marked as modified versions in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 4. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgment: This product includes software developed by Geoff Kuenning and other unpaid contributors. 5. The name of Geoff Kuenning may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY GEOFF KUENNING AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL GEOFF KUENNING OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
