Dictionary Copyright Question

[LivingVisual]

I live in New York.

I am currently making a mobile application which uses word definitions and I am curious what sort of copyright issues I could run into. Specifically, the application would have a list of 100 words of my choosing along with pictures of what the words mean. I am curious whether there would be any legal problems associated with sourcing word definitions from dictionaries like

www.merriam-webster.com/
www.thefreedictionary.com/

Thanks for your help.

 

[justalayman]

define: sourcing

If you copy their writing, yes, there is a copyright issue. If you refer or link to them, that is something different.

You are welcome to write your own definition of the words you are intending on using.

 

[quincy]

LivingVisual, a question similar to your question here was answered in 2008. The answer given then still applies today.

You can click on the link below to see if what is posted in that thread answers your question sufficiently. It won't answer the question justalayman has asked of you on sourcing, though, so you could perhaps clarify.

https://forum.freeadvice.com/copyrights-trademarks-39/derivative-work-dictionary-388765.html

 

[justalayman]

after re-reading my response, I would like to clarify:

I did not mean that you had to create your own definition of a word (although you could as it is not illegal to state that a rose is something other than what is commonly accepted as a rose but that would obviously damage the credibility of your dictionary) but how a word is defined is specific to any given dictionary.

example:

from Miriam-Webster:

a : any of a genus (Rosa of the family Rosaceae, the rose family) of usually prickly shrubs with pinnate leaves and showy flowers having five petals in the wild state but being often double or partly double under cultivation

from thefreedictionary.com:

1. A member of the rose family.
2.
a. Any of numerous shrubs or vines of the genus Rosa, having prickly stems, pinnately compound leaves, and variously colored, often fragrant flowers.
b. The flower of any of these plants.
c. Any of various similar or related plants.
.

while they both describe a rose in similar fashion, one is not a verbatim copying of the other. The factual portions of the definition are not covered by copyright. It's the expression of those facts that is the issue.