On Wed, 2 Jun 2004, Behdad Esfahbod wrote: > their dictionary available for download is infringing copyright > of the Aryanpours
What I understood from that discussion was that a lot of online dictionaries are using Aryanpour data with no mention of the name Aryanpour. Others mention Aryanpour but no sign that the Aryanpour estate is getting any royalties or even that permission was asked or granted to use their data. Then I even noticed this one: http://www.aryanpour.com where I'm not even sure any Aryanpour data was used! Since the Aryanpour family was in the dictionary business before anyone could foresee the computer age and with Iranian copyright laws being what they are, I'm not sure even that legally speaking, these people are breaking any laws. This data falls into a grey zone. Now, morally speaking, I must say in principle, it is horrible to take someone else's labor without permission, especially when the Aryanpour family is still around and still making dictionaries. I would like to know if they care or are they so big and famous that this is of no concern? Or maybe they are wringing their hands in despair that no one cares and then they'll thank you, Behdad! Why doesn't someone go knock on their door and ask for an official statement! I am sure curious to know! I don't think the Iranian Mac Users Group is any more or less guilty than all the others using the Aryanpour data and unless the Aryanpour family or their lawyers issue a directive, I can't do anything but urge people to say where they got the data and also join in this and other discussions because we are now entering the age of the database when all kinds of things are going to go online and I'm sure everyone would like to feel good about what they're doing. I think it's a good thing that nowadays there are EULA's, etc where the owner can explicitly say what may or may not be done with the property. By the way, does anyone know of a Persian online dictionary which gives any sort of pronunciation or transliteration info in Latin script? I mean besides the Steingass and besides this one: http://iranianlanguages.com/dictionary.php?eng-per which is obviously being developed with much care and attention to quality but still seems to not have a very large word base. -Connie _______________________________________________ PersianComputing mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/persiancomputing
