GNU Dictionary
Last year, Arabeyes group received a request from Wikitionary administrator for appending Arabeyes’s dictionary to Wikitionary project, and a very interesting discussion started in the Arabeyes mailing list.
Here we have a GPLd dictionary, and we want to insert it in an FDL project, can we do it?
This was the main question at that time, but this simple question lead to several important questions:
- Which is more suitable for a dictionary: GPL or FDL? And:
- What is Dictionary considered originally: a software component or a regular text? And once you think that it’s a database, neither a pure software component nor a pure regular text, you might ask:
- Which is —again— more suitable for a database: GPL/LGPL or FDL? And finally:
- What’s the basic difference between GPL and FDL?
Starting from the last question, simply, I think that the main difference is that:
- FDL addresses material as a printable material, but not as a software library.
- While GPL/LGPL address the software and software library issues, but not the printable material issues.
Technically, What’s Dictionary?
By simple analysis, you can realize that dictionary basically, is not a code; it’s something real, you can print it, publish it for human readers.
But in the same time, in practical, it’s a library, that could be understood and used by software applications, so that they can employ it, and capitalize on it, for their own sake.
Simply: it’s a printable software library.
And actually, this what database represents!
Now take a look to this simple matrix:
Printable | Software Library | License | Collaboration System | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Software | ✕ | ✓ | GPL/LGPL | CVS |
Text | ✓ | ✕ | FDL | HTTP/Wiki |
Databases | ✓ | ✓ | ? | ? |
Arts (Images) | ✓ | ✓ | CC | ✕ |
Arts (Media) | ✕ | ✓ | CC | ✕ |
So, we need:
- A GNU license for Databases/Dictionaries, which considers: library issues, and printable materials issues.
- A powerful and agile collaboration system which can really capitalize on the power of databases.
The License
It should cover all the potential usages of a dictionary:
- A software dictionary.
- A printed dictionary
- Using its content in the commercial/noncommercial media materials.
The Collaboration System
I think that appending contributions via POP3/SMTP client mail is the best way for a collaborative database project. And here’s why:
Massive appending | No web interface required | |
---|---|---|
HTTP/Wiki | ✕ | ✕ |
SMTP/SQL | ✓ | ✓ |
So the matrix will be like this:
Printable | Software Library | License | Collaboration System | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Software | ✕ | ✓ | GPL/LGPL | CVS |
Text | ✓ | ✕ | FDL | HTTP/Wiki |
Databases | ✓ | ✓ | GDL (GNU Dictionary/Database License) | SMTP/SQL |
Arts (Images) | ✓ | ✓ | CC | ✕ |
Arts (Media) | ✕ | ✓ | CC | ✕ |