Bug#854209: Rewritting the license is not relicencing
On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 5:56 PM, Luke W Faraone <lfaraone@debian.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 21:28:30 +0100 Bastien ROUCARIES <roucaries.bastien@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Mike Hommey ask me to remove a lintian warning about a unicode file.
>>
>> I appear that chrome chan
> ge the license text because unicode changed
>> the license of distribued files.
>>
>> But the relicense is not retroactive and unicde consorcium removed
>> before relicencing the offending file.
>
> Can you clarify which files specifically are in question?
>
> Just to make sure I understand, the order of operations was:
See https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=823100
> 1. Unicode distributed a project under a non-free license
Yes it was base/ConvertUTF.c and base/ConvertUTF.h. But whole
project was non free in this epoc.
License was:
This source code is provided as is by Unicode, Inc. No claims are made
as to fitness for any particular purpose. No warranties of any kind are
expressed or implied. The recipient agrees to determine applicability
of information provided. If this file has been purchased on magnetic or
optical media from Unicode, Inc., the sole remedy for any claim will be
exchange of defective media within 90 days of receipt.
.
Limitations on Rights to Redistribute This Code
.
Unicode, Inc. hereby grants the right to freely use the information
supplied in this file in the creation of products supporting the
Unicode Standard, and to make copies of this file in any form for
internal or external distribution as long as this notice remains
attached.
At the very least, this license does not grant any permission
to modify the files (thus failing DFSG#3). Moreover, the license grant
seems to attempt to restrict use to "products supporting the Unicode
Standard" (thus failing DFSG#6).
> 2. Unicode removed some of those files from the project
Yes unicode removed this file
Unfortunately, upstream seems to have _dropped_ the code due to being
buggy and unmaintained since 2004, according to
http://unicode.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=90 - summarized at
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2685004/why-does-unicode-org-no-longer-offer-a-reference-utf-8-16-32-converter
> 3. Unicode changed the license of the project to be DFSG-free
Yes but only to file offered to be downloaded on unicode website (and
well after 2004):
If Unicode Inc has published new versions of the two files in
more recent times, the updated versions should be under the
current unicode.org public license, as explained in
http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html#Exhibit1
Therefore both files wer not relicenced....
>
> -- Luke Faraone
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