Re: Is this a free license?
Jim Penny <jpenny@debian.org> writes:
> 1) it appears not to allow modification of the file. The only
> operation permitted is "extraction".
Both Sam Hartman and I agreed that while modification might not be
permitted, distribution of patch files for the purpose of effective
modification *is* easily possible for any program that reads the
file. So this is not a problem for distributing the verbatim file in
Debian.
> 2) while "extraction" is permitted, no explicit right to redistribute
> the extracted (derived) information is granted.
You can *use* the extracted information in "documentation or
programs", and I think in context it's clear that this use is intended
to allow even Microsoft to distribute the program without license, and
certainly therefore a free program.
> Note: I have no interest in whether DSFG compatible programs can be
> created using this data. Clearly, they can. Is a file under this
> license, or a file mechanically derived from such a file DSFG free?
In the case of the Unicode data file, yes. There is no need to decide
such a question in a hypothetical case.
Thomas
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