Re: GNU Free Database License

[Merijn de Weerd]

On 2006-09-17, Alfred M. Szmidt <ams@gnu.org> wrote:
>    Sure, that's a fact. But how I _write down_ the fact can be
>    a creative expression. Do I say "hello is a common greeting"
>    or do I add its etymology, a comparison with other languages,
>    an explanation of when "hello" is more appropriate than
>    "good day", "hi" and other greetings?
>
> That is a bit more than a dictionary, atleast compared to what my
> dictionary (Concise English Dictionary) contains.  Which is looks like
> the following:

I guess I was spoiled, I only have big dictionaries. :)

If you just say:

>   Route, röt, n. A course or way.

then you're stating fact and you have no copyright. If you 
write all that M-W or books like that write on a single word,
then you have creative expression. 

> They have copyright on the way it is presented.  Not on the actual
> definition.  So do we agree? :-)

I'm not sure what you mean by "presented", but M-W has a copyright
on its particular entry for "hello". The above from your CED
is too short to be creative, so it's not copyrighted. But I would
not call M-W's text a "presentation". To me "presentation" means
things like the font, whitespace, arranging entries and so on.

Merijn

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