🚀 go-pugleaf

I recently ftp'ed code for webster and websterd with eyes
toward installing these programs in our heterogeneous UNIX
environment.  In the process of obtaining the BTREE and LIBTEXT
libraries as per the documentation (to get the "thesaurus"
aspect of the program working), I received the following
comments from a representative from NeXT:


	> Note:  Also, I must tell you that using any software to extract
	> Websters definitions or Thesaurus entries from a non-NeXT
	> machine is a violation of the Webster's copyright and an
	> infringement of the NeXT Software License Agreement.
	> 
	> 
	> Merriam-Websters is concerned about an abuse of their copyright
	> and have expressed a willingness to license it's use on a
	> royalty-bearing basis.  Here is how they can be contacted for
	> further information:
	> 
	> Merriam-Webster, Inc.
	> 47 Federal Street
	> P.O. Box 281
	> Springfield, MA  01102
	> Attention:  Jim Withgott, Vice President

The above is not a legal statement, obviously, but it certainly
informs me of a possible legal problem.  I hope someone can help
me with a couple questions about this:

	(1) Is this policy a well-known fact?  Does anyone know
	    more about this?  Has anyone written the company (Webster)
	    asked about this or perhaps even licensed the use of
	    the "webster" program on non-next machines?

	(2) There was no mention of this in the webster sources (or the
	    NeXT faq list) that I saw, so what can I imply from this?

	    (a) Can I run webster on all our UNIX platforms because
		the program that is actually extracting information
		(websterd) is running on a NeXT?
	    (b) Can I run websterd on a NeXT and run webster on all
	        our other NeXTs but not on any other UNIX platforms?
	    (c) Would it be OK (legal), for example, to use scenario
		(b) just above, and then on all other non-NeXT UNIX
		machines have "webster" be a one-line shell script
		that does: "rsh somenextmachine webster $*"?  Or would
		this still be considered a violation?

I know that I cannot expect complete and accurate answers based
on the non-legal information from NeXT that I included above, but
I would appreciate hearing some comments/discussion, especially
from anyone who knows more about this or perhaps has contacted
Merriam-Websters.  Please send email rather than posting followups,
and I'll post a summary to these groups.

				Kennedy Lemke
				Network and UNIX Systems Administrator
				Postmaster
				Matsushita Information Technology Laboratory
				182 Nassau Street, Third Floor
				Princeton, New Jersey  08542
Work Phone: (609) 497-4600
Fax Phone:  (609) 497-4013	Email: lemke@MITL.COM