Re: describe-char and unicode data

[Simon Josefsson]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>       Recipient is granted the right to make copies in any form for
>       internal distribution and to freely use the information
>       supplied in the creation of products supporting the UnicodeTM
>       Standard. The files in the Unicode Character Database can be
>       redistributed to third parties or other organizations (whether
>       for profit or not) as long as this notice and the disclaimer
>       notice are retained. Information can be extracted from these
>       files and used in documentation or programs, as long as there
>       is an accompanying notice indicating the source.
>
> Perhaps that last sentence gives us permission to release a free work
> containing the full information, but we had better check that with a
> lawyer first.

Below is the response from Unicode.  Is this sufficient?

Rick also made the following comment:

     Note that if you use any Unihan data, you should look at the UCD
     documentation and pay particular attention to which fields are
     normative and which are not; and to what is "provisional". A lot
     of the data in Unihan.txt is not normative, it is spotty and
     provisional and subject to change and improvement without notice.

So I think anyone working on this should separate the display into a
normative part and a "provisional" part so the user isn't lead to
believe some data are normative but really are unchecked data.

> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
>
> Subject: 
>
> Re: draft-rmcgowan-unicode-procs-02.txt
>
>
>
>
> Date: 
>
> Mon, 12 May 2003 17:05:02 -0700
>
>
>
>
> Hello Simon --
>
> You asked:
>
> > Has there been any progress?  I notice that the UCD-4.0.0.html says:
> > |     Recipient is granted the right to make copies in any form ...
> >
>
> Yes there has been progress. You can take this as an official response.
>
> We intend for the Unihan database to have the same rights and restrictions
> as all of the UCD. Therefore we inserted the revised clause into
> UCD-4.0.0.html, intending that it over-ride what is in the Unihan file.
> The Unihan database has not yet been updated to a 4.0 version, so 3.2 is
> the current one. But the 4.0 UCD clause over-rides the older terms in the  
> Unihan 3.2 file.
>
> When the Unihan database is (soon) updated to a 4.0 or later version, the
> clause will be changed in the Unihan database itself to align with the new
> intent, and to match the 4.0 UCD.
>
> > In a discussion about adding support for this in the text editor
> > application Emacs, Richard Stallman raised the following issue:
> >
> > ,----
> > |     Unihan.txt> Recipient is granted the right ... to freely use
> > |     Unihan.txt> the information supplied in the creation
> > |     Unihan.txt> of products supporting Unicode.
> > |
> > | It is not clear that that gives us permission to transform
> > | this data into a anything that would be under a free license,
> > | but we could ask those who released it whether they meant it
> > | to allow that.  Would someone like to contact them and ask?
> > |
> > `----
>
> Yes, we mean that. If people couldn't take our data and transform it by
> compression, compilation, extraction, etc, then it wouldn't be very useful.
> We definitely intend people to use it. What we don't really want is for
> people to take our data verbatim and re-distribute it verbatim, although
> such use is definitely allowed explicity. We would prefer that, if
> people need to distribute our data verbatim, they do so by referring to
> the "latest version" on the web, and point to our web site. That way
> constomers of the products can know how and where to get the latest
> versions.
>
> But to make a product that uses Unicode, almost everyone needs to take the
> character information and properties and somehow distill that information
> into a form that is suitable for use by a program during the course of
> execution. When you do so, it is nice to also allow a means for end-users
> to get an upgrade of the data by supplying some distillation mechanism, or
> explaining your data format (if you use one) so that users can do manual
> upgrades if needed.
>
> A good example of using the Unicode data files is provided by this program:
>
>         http://www.agfamonotype.com/software/charinfo.asp
>
> That program comes with a compressed database, and has an option for live
> update to the most recent Unicode data files by including a parser within
> it. Any user can download the Unicode data files from our website, and ask
> the program to upgrade itself from those files.
>
> Please let me know if you have any further questions.
>
> All the best,
>
>         Rick
>
> --- End Message ---