Legality of using pre made dictionaries in my online dictionary applet
<p>I am currently creating an online dictionary. All of my information is coming from hard copy dictionaries that I have found online in PDF form and other PDFs which I am not sure where the information came from. One dictionary that I am positive has a hard copy (as I own it) is this: <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0674072138" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Manchu-English-Dictionary-Harvard-Yenching-Institute/dp/0674072138</a></p>

<p>What do I need to do to use this on a website? Do I need permission? can I just put some type of works cited page?</p>

<p>any help would be great. </p>

<p>The dictionary is located here <a href="http://www.domdit.com/buleku" rel="nofollow">http://www.domdit.com/buleku</a></p>

<p>Assuming the dictionaries are copyright (which, unless they are very old they almost certainly will be) what you are doing is creating a derivative work. You need the permission of the copyright holder to do this unless you have a fair use/fair dealing defense. You probably don't.</p>

<p>If you take a substantial amount from the works (as you describe), then you follow the licence, or breach copy-write. </p>

<p>Have you considered sources with a licence approved by the Free Software Foundation <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html</a> or the Open Source Initiative <a href="https://opensource.org/" rel="nofollow">https://opensource.org/</a> Or maybe Creative Commons <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/" rel="nofollow">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/</a> but beware the non commercial licenses (they can cause a lot of unexpected trouble).</p>

intellectual-property