From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Simon Josefsson Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: License of Unicode tables (was: Re: Feature request for `describe-char-after') Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 14:27:17 +0100 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <16477.53040.700494.489540@gargle.gargle.HOWL> <87vfkwn83l.fsf@mail.jurta.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1080048871 1501 80.91.224.253 (23 Mar 2004 13:34:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 13:34:31 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Tue Mar 23 14:34:20 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1B5m2t-0002MY-00 for ; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 14:34:19 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1B5m2t-0007PA-00 for ; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 14:34:19 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1B5lxe-0000yt-5t for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 08:28:54 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1B5lwv-0000yL-Kw for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 08:28:09 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1B5lwO-0000tJ-6V for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 08:28:07 -0500 Original-Received: from [217.13.230.178] (helo=yxa.extundo.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (TLSv1:DES-CBC3-SHA:168) (Exim 4.30) id 1B5lwN-0000st-KQ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 08:27:35 -0500 Original-Received: from latte.josefsson.org (yxa.extundo.com [217.13.230.178]) (authenticated bits=0) by yxa.extundo.com (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i2NDRPh6014073 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NO); Tue, 23 Mar 2004 14:27:26 +0100 Original-To: Stefan Monnier X-Hashcash: 0:040323:monnier@iro.umontreal.ca:edf78d069bd01e05 X-Hashcash: 0:040323:emacs-devel@gnu.org:5fd3a34032599f01 In-Reply-To: (Stefan Monnier's message of "22 Mar 2004 16:33:19 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110002 (No Gnus v0.2) Emacs/21.3.50 (gnu/linux) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:20781 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:20781 Stefan Monnier writes: >> Could someone please explain exactly what it is in the license that >> make it non-free? > > It does not permit modification and distribution of modified versions. > I.e. it does not allow bug-fixing. That wasn't clear to me from the license I quoted -- I'll ask if this really is the intention with the license. To me, the license said I could extract information from the files and use in my application. I couldn't follow how that prevented me from only incorporating part of the file, and using something else instead of that part, which essentially is what a bug fix is. Has any lawyer given this advice? But in any case -- is this a realistic problem? Do we know of any bugs in the file? I'd say that changing anything in the file is not the proper solution, it would only confuse our users since we wouldn't follow the standard in that case. The right thing would be to report this to Unicode Inc. and when they publish a new version of the tables, we would incorporate it. If we fork the standard, I think we get an obligation to our users to document things fully, and also to stop claiming we follow the "real" Unicode standard; I doubt we want to go there. Thanks. (I have a non-Emacs interest in this question, since GNU Libidn uses several Unicode Inc. tables. So even if this is moving off-topic, I'd still like to clear up the matter. I suspect Debian would be interested as well, as they ship several Unicode tables, and IIRC they have some policies that say what they ship should be free, except for the explicitly non-free packages.)