Re: regressive image dictionary fontification in emacs

[Richard Stallman]

    I realise that: for the moment I consider this to be "pirate" software
    because it contains a potentially non-free core.  I know you don't
    generally like pirate software.

I disapprove generally of attacking ships on the high seas, but it has
nothing to do with software as far as I know.  If you're talking about
an unauthorized copy of a proprietary program, please don't call that
with a slur such as "pirate".  The bad thing about that is that it's
proprietary.  (An authorized copy would be worse.)

    I could also write a script that would download the (potentially)
    non-free source of the dictionary, then transform it into the source
    code, and release my work as free software.

It is doable, but if in practice the USE of this free program would
depend on a specific nonfree wordlist, then it would be trapped (the
way many Java programs formerly used to be trapped before we had a
free Java platform).  Please don't announce trapped programs here.

    The dictionary is actually just several lists of words, which are
    meant to fall into certain "psychological" categories, e.g. there is a
    list of emotion words, there is a list of symbols reminiscent of the
    Icarus myth, etc.

Surely you can make such lists yourself that would serve your purpose.
You can get a public domain old version of Roget's Thesaurus from
Project Gutenberg, select what you want, then add such words as might
occur to you.  It won't be exactly the same, but it could do just as
well.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/