[License-review] [External] Re: Legacy license suggestion: WordNet

Wed Apr 30 19:55:00 UTC 2025

Hi McCoy,

That's correct, I'm suggesting it as a legacy license.

Thanks,
Brian

--
Brian Warner
Director, Fidelity Investments OSPO
brian.warner2 at fmr.com<mailto:brian.warner2 at fmr.com>
+1 724-301-6171
________________________________
From: License-review <license-review-bounces at lists.opensource.org> on behalf of McCoy Smith <mccoy at lexpan.law>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2025 3:42 PM
To: license-review at lists.opensource.org <license-review at lists.opensource.org>
Subject: [External] Re: [License-review] Legacy license suggestion: WordNet

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[speaking not in my capacity as OSI Board member]

Two potential issues with this one:

1. The obligations apply to internal use. That violates Freedom Zero.
Freedom Zero isn't part of the OSD but I've always perceived it as
inherently part of it. So you'd be approving a Freedom Zero violating
license if you approve this one (which I don't think OSI has ever done).

2. The ownership/title clause could be read to obligate modifications to
be assigned back to Princeton. Also I'm not sure what this obligation is
intended to require with regard to title to the software: "LICENSEE
agrees to preserve same" (note: that isn't an obligation to preserve
copyright notices, which is already in the second paragraph).

Brian: Are you proposing this approval as a legacy? I think the legacy
approval is less stringent for the sort of things I've outlined above
than for newer licenses.

On 4/30/2025 12:10 PM, Warner, Brian (TS3K) via License-review wrote:
> OSI community,
>
> I'd like to suggest the inclusion of WordNet through the legacy license process. The license is similar to CMU, but also references databases. It pops up in various places as the WordNet project is over 20 years old and, quoting the Debian package manager, "is considered to be the most important resource available to researchers in computational linguistics, text analysis, and many related areas."
>
> * The license is attached as a text file and included below. I've taken the liberty of adding some spacing to make it more readable.
> * I believe this license complies with the OSD, including OSD 3, 5, 6, and 9
> * WordNet (https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwordnet.princeton.edu%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cbrian.warner2%40fmr.com%7C32d8ce2ab8dd4a2d966708dd881f46e6%7C7521acbca68c41e5a9751cf83066dd19%7C0%7C0%7C638816390100238840%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FHMS5sZZGUYjLo3KUsQoyabyG9A6OgoWmRX7Pjv4fbU%3D&reserved=0<https://wordnet.princeton.edu/>) is a structured grouping of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and is/was used for developing things that need to identify similar words - thesauruses, natural language processing applications, etc. While the original project appears to no longer be active, the Open English Wordnet (https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fglobalwordnet%2Fenglish-wordnet&data=05%7C02%7Cbrian.warner2%40fmr.com%7C32d8ce2ab8dd4a2d966708dd881f46e6%7C7521acbca68c41e5a9751cf83066dd19%7C0%7C0%7C638816390100260945%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=62EtkYhJpCfdjObyvhDDFGGBFHiXvp1nzaKt6wymU0M%3D&reserved=0<https://github.com/globalwordnet/english-wordnet>) has continued to release annually under WordNet and CC-BY-4.0.
> * I believe the license steward would be Princeton University. I am not sure who to contact, as this is something I came across doing license work.
> * Fedora tracks this license as an MIT variant (https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffedoraproject.org%2Fwiki%2FLicensing%3AMIT%23WordNet_Variant&data=05%7C02%7Cbrian.warner2%40fmr.com%7C32d8ce2ab8dd4a2d966708dd881f46e6%7C7521acbca68c41e5a9751cf83066dd19%7C0%7C0%7C638816390100272675%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=2gcE%2FqLovcMe8HiyP3e9bG1Uw4HFDvySIP5dFRa9goU%3D&reserved=0<https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:MIT#WordNet_Variant>). The package is included in Debian (https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpackages.debian.org%2Fsid%2Fwordnet&data=05%7C02%7Cbrian.warner2%40fmr.com%7C32d8ce2ab8dd4a2d966708dd881f46e6%7C7521acbca68c41e5a9751cf83066dd19%7C0%7C0%7C638816390100284230%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=NlD4LazEK3jscQH1V10qp7BuXFWg57VVMzRZ4q95Uu8%3D&reserved=0<https://packages.debian.org/sid/wordnet>)
> * I recommend naming the license "WordNet" as this is how the project refers to it, i.e., "This resource is derived from Princeton WordNet under the WordNet License..."
> * I've submitted the license text to SPDX as well, recommending using WordNet as the ID
>
> Thanks,
> Brian
>
> License text:
> This software and database is being provided to you, the LICENSEE, by Princeton University under the following license. By obtaining, using and/or copying this software and database, you agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with these terms and conditions.:
>
> Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and database and its documentation for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you agree to comply with the following copyright notice and statements, including the disclaimer, and that the same appear on ALL copies of the software, database and documentation, including modifications that you make for internal use or for distribution.
>
> WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
>
> THIS SOFTWARE AND DATABASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND PRINCETON UNIVERSITY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. BY WAY OF EXAMPLE, BUT NOT LIMITATION, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT- ABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR THAT THE USE OF THE LICENSED SOFTWARE, DATABASE OR DOCUMENTATION WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS.
>
> The name of Princeton University or Princeton may not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software and/or database. Title to copyright in this software, database and any associated documentation shall at all times remain with Princeton University and LICENSEE agrees to preserve same.
>
>
> --
> Brian Warner
> Director, Fidelity Investments OSPO
> brian.warner2 at fmr.com
> +1 724-301-6171
>
>
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