Nova Lingvo
Licensing & attribution
Last updated 7 September 2026
The IDK apps are two separate things with two separate licences: an engine I wrote, and dictionary data built from open lexical sources. Several of those sources carry ShareAlike terms, so the data is redistributed under a compatible licence and the engine is not.
The apps
The application code — the Flutter client, the lookup and scheduling algorithms, the servers, and the artwork including the parrot logo — is © 2026 Eric Ward, all rights reserved. It is not open source.
The dictionary data
The compiled dictionary databases shipped inside the apps are derived from the sources below. Because Wiktionary and the National Institute of Korean Language datasets are both CC BY-SA, the derived database is itself distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0, as those licences require. If you want a copy of that database as a standalone file, email eric@novalingvo.app.
Korean
| Source | Provider | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| KRDict (한국어기초사전) | National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) | CC BY-SA 2.0 KR |
| Urimalsaem (우리말샘) | National Institute of Korean Language | CC BY-SA 2.0 KR |
| Korean Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org / Wiktextract | Wikimedia Foundation; Tatu Ylonen | CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL |
| Unihan database (Hanja readings, strokes, radicals) | Unicode, Inc. | Unicode License Agreement |
| mecab-ko-dic (morphological analysis) | Eunjeon Project | Apache 2.0 |
| Open Korean Text | Open Korean Text Project | Apache 2.0 |
| Tatoeba example sentences | Tatoeba community contributors | CC BY 2.0 FR |
Italian and the other European pairs
| Source | Provider | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| English and Italian Wiktionary | Wikimedia Foundation | CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL |
| OPUS parallel corpora | OPUS project contributors | Per-corpus; each is open, and the terms of the corpora used are reproduced in the app's Data licences screen |
| Tatoeba example sentences | Tatoeba community contributors | CC BY 2.0 FR |
What is deliberately not included
Some material inside the source datasets is not openly licensed, and is excluded from the shipped databases rather than redistributed:
- Example sentences that NIKL quotes from copyrighted newspapers and modern literature. Those appear in Urimalsaem under Korean statutory quotation provisions, not under CC BY-SA.
- NIKL audio pronunciations and illustrations. The apps use the operating system's text-to-speech instead.
Open-source components
The apps bundle open-source libraries, mostly under the BSD, MIT and Apache 2.0 licences. The full list with licence texts is generated from the build and shown in the app under Settings → About → Open-source licences.
Corrections
If you hold rights in something listed here and think the attribution is wrong or the use is not covered, please email eric@novalingvo.app. I'd rather fix it than argue about it.