User:Raekmannen/Conversation with Ralph Midgley

Letter 1 – Raekmannen to Midgley

Original

O flen löfik!

Balido, ba sötob jonodön oki ole. Nem oba binon hiel Rasmus Svensson. Ejafob resodapada volapük.info. Suvo spikob ko hiel Radu Chinan in spikotacem #volapuk ela IRC.

Anu, lü din. Sis dels tel, hiel Chris Huff ed ob ekopiedobs vödis de vödabuk vemo gudik ola ini el Wiktionary. No äsäkobs oli pro zep, bi vödabuk ya äbinon pö plads mödik vüresoda, klu äbüocedobs das ädalobs gebön oni.

Enu, vob obas pö el Wiktionary epadeükon, bi no labobs zep ola. Klu, säk mükik oba binon: Begö, dalobs-li gebön vödabuki gretik oba? Kredob das el Wiktionary binon stum gudik ad noganükön vödabukis, e binonöv frut gretik pro komotanef volapüka.

Mükiko, Rasmus Svensson, Volapükaflen

Translation

Dear friend,

Firstly, maybe I should introduce myself to you. My name is Rasmus Svensson. I have created the volapük.info website. I often speak with Radu Chinan in the #volapuk IRC channel.

Now, to the matter. Since two days ago, Chris Huff and I have been copying words from your very good dictionary into Wiktionary. We didn't ask you for permission, because the dictionary was already at multiple places on the Internet therefore we assumed that we were allowed to use it.

Just now, our work on Wiktionary has been removed, because we don't have your permission. Therefore, my humble question to you is: Please, could we use your great dictionary? I believe that Wiktionary is a good tool for organizing dictionaries, and it would be an great advantage for the Volapük Community.

Humbly, Rasmus Svensson, Friend of Volapük

Letter 2 – Midgley to Raekmannen

Original

O flen mükik oba!

Danob oli demü pened olik.

No neodoy zepi oba ad gebön u ad bükön vödabuki gretik oba. Edunob (ed ai revidob oni anu) ad dünön Volapükanefi. Läükob suvo vödis nulik kaenava e vödis alsotik votik, kels jünu no dabinons in pük.

Danob ladöfiküno oli (e kevobanis olik) demü vob mu frutik at.

R. Midgley Flenef Bevünetik Volapüka

Translation

My humble friend,

One does not need permission to use or to print my large dictionary. I have done [it] (and I always revise it now) to serve the Volapük community. I often enclose new technology words and all sorts of other words that until now does not exist in the language.

I thank you cordially (and your co-worker) for this most useful work.

R. Midgley International Friendship of the World Language

Letter 3 – Raekmannen to Midgley

Dear friend,

(Please excuse me for writing this letter in English, but in this letter, it is essential that I can express myself as well as possible.)

I'm glad to hear that you don't mind us using the dictionary. However, to be able to insert the words, and possibly the example sentences, into Wiktionary (which Chris and I believe would be really beneficial for the Volapük community) we need a more formal permission. The reason is that the Wiktionary project cannot afford the risk of being sued for copyright infringement.The way it is now, you legally have the ability to sue Wiktionary if your example sentences or a larger number of your selection of terms is enclosed (since you are the copyright holder). Therefore Wiktionary can't accept these entries currently.

(See http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Copyrights for more details regarding this.)

There is, however, a solution to this if it is your intention to allow us to base the Volapük part of Wiktionary on your dictionary. What we need, is you to release the work (i.e. your dictionary) under a compatible license. There are two choices of licenses that would make this possible:

1. Public Domain 2. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License -- and also -- GNU Free Documentation License

(See http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/WT:CC-BY-SA and http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/WT:GFDL for the details on these licenses.)

What we need is a public announcement from you saying something like "I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: <your license of choice>", preferably in the form of an email. It would also be useful if this notice would be placed in the dictionary too.

I hope I made the issue more clear now. If you have any questions regarding anything of this, I will gladly answer them.

I'm looking forward for your answer.

Yours sincerely, Rasmus Svensson