severity 408373 important
thanks

On Thu, Jan 25, 2007 at 01:12:50PM +0100, Frank Gevaerts wrote:
> Package: scribble
> Version: 1.10-2
> Severity: serious
> Justification: Policy 2.2.1

> The file "Official Long Words List.txt" in the source package, which
> seems to be used to compile the wordlist that is used by the game, has
> the following information at the top:

> #
> # The Official Long Words List includes all acceptable 10-15 letter words NOT
> # already in the Official Tournament and Club Word List.

> # The Official Long Words List has been compiled and created by the Dictionary
> # Committee of the National Association. As of June 16, 2003, this list will
> # become the ONLY acceptable official long word list for use at sanctioned
> # National Association Clubs and Tournaments. Players and Directors may order
> # it as a spiral-bound book from NSA Word Gear, Inc. for $15. As of May 23rd,
> # the book is in press and we are accepting preorders.

> # The word list is available from this site for personal, noncommercial use as
> # a 600K download with MD5 digest (authentication) code
> # 2f218ad494145171c29b3fdf9cf45993.  The availability of the word list as a
> # download is not meant to suggest that any copy of the list is acceptable for
> # use in word adjudication. For reasons of quality control, tournament and
> # club directors must use the officially printed edition.

> Note the "personal, noncommercial use" wording. This looks to be incompatible 
> with the DFSG.

However, it's my understanding that word lists are not subject to copyright,
and therefore in most jurisdictions, statements about the permitted use of
the wordlist are non-binding.

I understand that some EU nations have a concept of database rights that
would be applicable to word lists, but given that this word list is not of
EU origin, it's not clear to me that such database rights would attach, or
that they should attach automatically.  I don't think there's anything here
to suggest that this wordlist can't be released in Debian, though it may
warrant further investigation.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]                                   http://www.debian.org/


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