How does the CC ShareAlike provision affect dictionaries/data sources?
<p>For a website, I'm using some dictionaries which were created by a community and licensed with the Creative Commons "ShareAlike" provision:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Let's say that in our hypothetical dictionary, an entry is as follows:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>banana (noun): 
  1. a curved yellow fruit. 
  2. a crazy person</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If I have website where a user can search a word and get just the first definition (<code>1. a curved yellow fruit</code>), does leaving out other information count as "transformation" or "remixing"? </p>

<p>I suppose this likely applies to other data sources, not just dictionaries, as well -- if I only partially use the information in the source, is that "snippet" affected by the ShareAlike provision?</p>

<p><sub>(Assuming CC BY-SA 4.0)</sub></p>
<p>The actual license uses the terms <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode#s1a" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Adapted Material</em></a> (≈ with changes) and <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode#s1h" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Licensed Material</em></a> (≈ without changes).</p>
<p>If you leave something out, it doesn’t fall under <em>Adapted Material</em>, but under <em>Licensed Material</em>, as the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode#s2a" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>License grant</em></a> says (bold emphasis mine):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, <strong>in whole or in part</strong>; and</p>
</li>
<li><p>produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>So if you share the <em>Licensed Material</em> in part (e.g., only the first definitions of all dictionary terms), and you don’t add your own content, it doesn’t become <em>Adapted Material</em>.</p>
<p>You still have to give attribution and note that the content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, of course.</p>

creative-commons