From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Ulrich Mueller Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Is admin/unidata/copyright.html a free software license? Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2023 12:42:17 +0200 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="37228"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/27.2 (gnu/linux) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Mon Aug 21 12:43:18 2023 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1qY2NS-0009VG-9f for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Mon, 21 Aug 2023 12:43:18 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1qY2Mj-00063n-MU; Mon, 21 Aug 2023 06:42:33 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1qY2Mh-00063b-Sr for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Aug 2023 06:42:31 -0400 Original-Received: from woodpecker.gentoo.org ([140.211.166.183] helo=smtp.gentoo.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_CHACHA20_POLY1305:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1qY2Mf-0003Xg-5O for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 21 Aug 2023 06:42:31 -0400 Received-SPF: pass client-ip=140.211.166.183; envelope-from=ulm@gentoo.org; helo=smtp.gentoo.org X-Spam_score_int: -41 X-Spam_score: -4.2 X-Spam_bar: ---- X-Spam_report: (-4.2 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED=-2.3, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H3=-0.01, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL=-0.01, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:309047 Archived-At: [I'd have expected a previous discussion on this, but I failed to find one in the archives of this mailing list. Sorry if this is a duplicate.] File admin/unidata/copyright.html (also at [1]) contains the "Unicode Terms of Use" which say in section H.2: | Unicode, Inc. shall have the right to modify this Agreement at any | time by posting it to this website. This allows the copyright holder to unilaterally revoke the freedoms, which I believe fails the free software definition [2]: "In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be permanent and irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong; if the developer of the software has the power to revoke the license, or retroactively add restrictions to its terms, without your doing anything wrong to give cause, the software is not free." IMHO it also fails Debian's "Tentacles of Evil" test [3] which says: "To be free, the license cannot allow even the author to take away the required freedoms." I am also surprised that these lists in admin/unidata/ or, in general, a character set can be copyrightable. (For example, everyone uses ASCII without thinking about copyright of the underlying ANSI X3.4 standard. The same applies to several much larger CJK character sets.) [1] https://www.unicode.org/copyright.html [2] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.en [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_Free_Software_Guidelines#debian-legal_tests_for_DFSG_compliance