Dictionaries for commercial use

[nongmin]

I'm a software developer and would like to write a really good review program for Chinese characters and words. I am learning them and feel that whats out there could be improved. Once written I would like to make it available for a very nominal fee to help cover the costs of distribution. Since this would be a commercial product I don't think I could use the CEDICT. Does anyone know of a commercial dictionary or database I could buy for this purpose or are there any suggestions?

[in_lab]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by a review program? I think you could use CEDict, just distribute the datafile freely. I think I've seen commercial software that uses CEDict.

[nongmin]

Would you mind giving me an example of the commercial software that uses the CEDICT? By a review program I mean something that helps you review characters and words a little better than what is out there. The programs I have seen lack interactivity and customizeability (if that is a word). You should be able to choose the characters or words to review from different lists such as by frequency. Then the program should have some sort of scheduled recall so if you go through the list and don't get some right, it should make you review those more and also it should remember it for the next time you review. Most of the card programs, especially the ones on the Internet just show the words and characters and then it doesn't really help you in reviewing them as much as it could, I think you know what I mean, sorry if I'm not explaining myself well enough.

[in_lab]

I checked and couldn't find any. The only thing I can think of is that KDIC is a shareware, and several places distribute CEDict-based databases for KDIC. But those are distributed separately. So, I don't know if you can get around the licence if you distribute both.

For reviewing characters, I use Supermemo. It does most of what you described, only it lacks premade cards. You could make cards with CEDict, or any other dictionary for that matter, but then you coudn't sell them. It seems like 95% of dictionaries must be copies of other dictionaries, just some are more blatant than others.

[roddy]

Surely the question is if you distribute CEDICT as part of a paid-for package? I can’t see how writing an application with no content, and then saying ‘This can be used with, for example, CEDICT, which is available at . . .’ is going to be a problem.

[trevelyan]

These files may be freely used by individuals, and may be accessed by software belonging to, or operated by, such individuals.

The files, extracts from the files, and translations of the files must not be

sold as part of any commercial software package, nor must they be incorporated in any published dictionary or other printed document without the specific permission of the copyright holders.

IANAL, but this seems clear. You can't sell software which incorporates CEDICT in binary form, but you can sell software which uses it.

The only grey area is web services, but even there the answer seems to be yes as long as the software remains "operated by individuals". I've noted a major online translation site which seemed to incorporate a CEDICT-licensed wordlist into their online translation services. This is my guess at why web translation services are toolbar based -- sending and fetching data from a server farm rather than dumping the software on the desktop and speeding up translation by pushing the load off their server: they can't legally distribute the actual database and still use it commercially.

[in_lab]

I found an example of what I was looking for, a dictionary made for CEDict. They dictionary and data are downloaded separately.

http://www.declan-software.com/chinese/?referrer=ADWORDS_CHINDICT