Privacy and Fair Use When Sharing Word Lists Online

TL;DR: A middle-I word list is a slice of language, usually fine to share as a study tool. A live daily answer is a spoiler. A club’s private annotated file may be theirs to keep. Do not paste 400 words into a public chat titled “today.” Do not scrape a site into an app you sell without permission. Do not put kids’ names into a shared sheet. Fair use is not a vibe. It is “what are you copying, for whom, and did you spoil a game.”

Spoiler versus dictionary

Dictionary slices are ordinary. Spoilers are dated strings. If your paste is undated and evergreen (DAISY, BRICK), you shared a dictionary. If your paste is “the word is _____” on a daily, you shared a key. Keys belong after a group’s close of play, or never. Never is kinder in a mixed-time zone chat. Time zones are a privacy of experience. Experience is the game. Do not steal it with a timestamped five letters. Timestamped five letters are small and nuclear. Treat them as nuclear. Dictionaries are cold. Cold is shareable. Nuclear waits.

Title the chat “constraint list,” not “today.” Titles are filters. Filters are ethics you can see. Visible ethics reduce accidents. Accidents are a screenshot in a family group. Family groups include a cousin who plays at 10 p.m. 10 p.m. is late. Late people still paid attention. Attention was theirs. Keep it theirs until they spend it.

Scraping and selling

If you republish the whole finder as your app, you may be copying someone else’s compilation. Compilations can have rights. This is not legal advice; it is a stop sign: ask, attribute, or make your own from a public lexicon with a pipeline. Pipelines from raw public word lists are a different story than hotlinking a live HTML. Hotlinking a live HTML into a product is a fast way to get a letter that is not I: C&D. C&D is more than five letters. Avoid it. Build unique_v3 from a source you have a right to use. Rights are a filter. Apply before you ship. Shipping is public. Public is where lawyers read. Lawyers read more than five boxes. Give them a boring origin story. Boring origin stories are a privacy of a sort: you are not hiding a scrape in a hoodie. Hoodies are not a license.

The homepage middle-I tool is for humans to search. Humans can link. Linking is not copying the database into a paid PDF. Paid PDFs of someone else’s 400 words without a deal are how hobbies get a smell. Hobbies should smell like paper. Paper you made. Made is the verb. Made is the defense you want if anyone asks. If you cannot say made, say link. Link is enough for a party. Parties do not need a PDF. PDFs are how unique_v3 becomes a leak with a cover. Covers are not ethics. Ethics is the napkin plus the source. Source on the napkin if you printed their list. Attribution is cheap. Cheap is good. Good is a line at the bottom: “words filtered from X.” X should be true. True X is privacy’s cousin: honesty. Honesty is a public letter. Put it in slot 1 of the footer. Footers are not I. They are still letters. Use them.

People in the sheet

Do not put a class roster next to a word list. Rosters are personal data. Word lists are not. Mixing is how a lost USB becomes a story. Stories find parents. Parents find you. You wanted DAISY. You shipped Maya. Unship Maya. Columns: words only. If you need scores, use aliases. Aliases are a privacy feature that looks like fun. Fun is allowed. Rosters are a school system. School systems have rules. Rules are not this blog. This blog says: words column, no emails, no last names, no student IDs. IDs are not five-letter middle-I words. If an ID is five letters with I in 3, it is still an ID. Ban it as a name plus. Plus is the extra ban. Extra bans are kindness. Kindness is fair use of other people’s lives. Lives are not a lexicon. Lexicons are DAISY. Keep DAISY. Drop Maya’s ID. If you cannot tell them apart, you already mixed. Unmix before you share. Share only the unmixed file. Unmixed files are unique_v3. Unique_v3 should not contain @. If it contains @, you pasted a mailbox. Mailboxes are not words. Trim. Pipeline. Again. Always again.

Kids’ photos of worksheets in a teacher Facebook group can include a face and a name on the paper. Crop. Crop is a privacy tool. Tools are not only finders. Finders find words. Crop finds the part that is only boxes. Boxes are shareable as pedagogy. Faces are not a pedagogy requirement. Pedagogy can live without a face. Let it. Let the boxes travel. Let the face stay in the classroom. Classrooms have walls. Walls are a feature. Features are not bugs. Do not bug a wall with a public post. Public posts are a different country. Countries have laws. Laws are more than five letters. Stay in the boxes when you post. Boxes. I in the middle. No face in slot 1–5. If a face is in the photo, you failed length: too many humans. Humans should be length zero in the image. Zero humans is the privacy filter. Apply it like PIZZA: if you see it, slash it. Slash is crop. Crop is the last letter of this job. Then you can share a list, a link, a lesson. Then you can go. Going is allowed. Allowed is the whole point of a fair, small, unspoiled game.