copyright fair-use
Is it legal to only copy all the words from a dictionary?
<p>I am dealing with a language that has only one published physical dictionary so far. I need a list of all words from that language. The dictionary has a traditional copyright text:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form, without permission in writing from the author.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It has not been possible to get in touch with the author. Is it fine to copy only the words from the dictionary without their definitions for educational and non-commercial purposes?</p>

<p>Under US law, words of a language are facts, which are not protected by copyright. Only creative expressions are protected. There are various aspects of a dictionary which are capable of protection, such as the pairing of a word and a translation, the organization of an entry (headword, POS information, the structure of sets of entries according to a grammatical analysis as in an Arabic dictionary). The order of presentation of the words could be protected (relevant for languages with complex morphology where words are grouped according to roots, rather than strict alphabetization). Finally, the criteria of selection for inclusion might involve a smidgen of creativity, but there is no creativity involved in publishing &quot;all of the words that I collected&quot;.</p>

<p>Under German Law, the collection of words in the dictionary, even without the definitions, would probably be protected as a Database (§4,I UrhG).</p>
<p>There are limits to Author's Rights, including limits for educational use. But your use does not fall under that exemption: §60a UrhG says that you can use <em>up to 15%</em> of a work for distributing to a <em>limited audience</em> (e.g. one class, one course, or one institution).</p>
<p>Also, while the use is permitted by law, the rights holder is still entitled to reasonable and fair renumeration (§60h UrhG) – in other words, even if your usage is covered by law and does not require <em>permission</em> by the rights holder, you still need to pay them.</p>
