Can I use GNU Aspell for English in my asp.net application?

Question

Aspell-net is a port of the GNU Aspell for .Net Framework. The library itself is open source, and is under the LGPL license, but the english dictionary for aspell is mentioned as copyrighted on the sourceforge.net project home page at http://aspell-net.sourceforge.net/

Did any of you guys use aspell-net before? and what license did you release your software under? The project I work on is a commercial one, and do you guys forsee any problem? Should I pay for the aspell english dictionary?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I am not a lawyer, but I see that Opera, which want to remain closed source, just points to Gnu Aspell and their dictionaries and tell the users to install them by themselves, when they try to use the spell checker... Thus they remain in neutral waters.

Not sure if it is a viable solution for you. Now, if you want to distribute the dictionary, you can contact the owners of the dictionary to see if they will grant you a license.

Answer 2

If you download the English dictionary for aspell, in the archive there is a "Copyright" file. From what I see, it's free to use. There are some provisions to include the copyright note, but I would guess it's only if you distribute it.

You can always send an email to Kevin Atkinson (the author) for more details.

Cheers