Hey everyone.

So I made a computer program (finished up some edits about a month ago) that searches Breis.focloir.ie for a word and basically gives all the information that the website would give (if it's a grammatical form of something, similar words, definitions, etc.) It also downloads the sound, if available, and gives similar the 'similar words' from there, too.

I am wanting to give it away to people, but I have no clue the legality of it. Do any of y'all know if I'm able to? It's open-source and completely free, and I intend for it to remain that way. I emailed Foras na Gaeilge about it, since they own the website/dictionaries, but after the first response asking for clarification, I've heard nothing back, and I've done quite a few changes, such as sound support since then. I feel it might be legal if I don't charge, since the dictionaries are available free online anyway.

Also, it has two versions: An Irish and an English one. I've put English as the default, as I assume most people who would be using it are reliant more upon English, but it can be changed. However, I don't have it to where it can save the data.

So, basically: Is it legal to share this program, if it's completely free and open-source?

Also, if you have any suggestions for things to add, or would like to see the code, please message me!

It's written in Python 3.4, with PyQt5 and Qt5.

AFAIk open source software is copyright free and must be shared freely, but cannot be sold. For further info have a look HERE
Searching a website by means of a search program is also legal. It's up to the webmaster to prevent information being publicly available.

Hope this helps, and look forward to seeing it.

There are various open sources licenses in use on different projects. Very few of them prohibit commercial sales.

This is true... if it's not banned. The usual way of telling web scrapers to go away is by means of a "robots.txt" file that tells a program what it's allowed to view and what it isn't.

There is also the issue of database rights -- information may be free, but a specific collection of it isn't.

That said, I don't see much risk in it. FnG's hesitancy in responding is probably linked to the fact that they're trying to do similar stuff already, including free, downloadable copies of the database.

Personally, I'd be liable to just "publish and be damned", and be ready to take it down if asked. I'd also be ready for it to stop working next time they upgrade the site, not out of any mischief, just because you're using non-published APIs...

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

Reading through everything on the site, I can't find anything where webscrapers are banned, or anywhere it says not to collect data off of the site.



Agreed. I just read that they're working on adding a way to download the grammar database from the site. However, it seems everything they're planning on doing is more related to the New English-Irish Dictionary as opposed to the older two, which is what I'm relying on at the moment.



That's probably what I'll do. I'd like to do some more testing on it first, since I haven't tried it out on any machine but my Windows 8 and my ArchLinux distro (which has an issue with playing the audio). But, I don't have access to more computers, so I might just publish and accept feedback.



Thanks!

I'd be happy to try it out on Windows 7 and Linux Mint if you'd like.

I'd try it on my iPad too, but I've only got Python 2.7 installed.

_________________
A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

What's the situation with it now?

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I figured out what was wrong. It now (should) work fine on every OS (haven't tested it on mac), as long as you have all the necessary stuff (Qt5, PyQt5, Python 3.4)

So I just quickly strung together something else y'all might be interested in: an Irish verb conjugator. It's super basic, without even a UI at the moment. All it does, really, is take the data from Teanglann.ie. However, if there's interest, I can improve it and share. It's made with Python 3.4 and Beautiful Soup, if anyone's interested.