Re: Seeking pre-approval for unifont update for Lenny
In speaking with Debian Developer Changwoo Ryu, maintainer of bf-utf,
xfonts-baekmuk, and other packages, he told me that the Hanterm fonts
have previously been removed from Debian because of concerns over
ambiguity of their license. The "unifont" Debian package has always
used Hanterm fonts as the basis of its Hangul Syllables block
(U+AC00..U+D7A3). This is 11,172 glyphs in all -- approximately 1/6
of the entire font. Older "unifont" packages (not the ones I
assembled for Debian) also used Hanterm fonts in the U+1100..U+11FF
range (I redrew that range with lighter-weight glyphs).
I got the copy of the Hanterm fonts that I used in the "unifont"
package from a FreeBSD distribution that stated that those fonts were
released under GPL. Fedora also listed them under GPL. However, if
there was concern over ambiguity with the licensing of those fonts in
Debian in the past enough to cause their removal elsewhere in Debian,
it seems necessary to remove any trace of them from the "unifont"
package (and anywhere else they might still be lurking unnoticed).
I would therefore like to upload a new version of the "unifont"
package that does the following:
* Deletes the font/hangul directory.
* Replaces the font/hexsrc/rc-hangul.hex file with a new rc-hangul.hex
file generated from the Hangul Syllables block in Changwoo Ryu's
modified unifont.bdf file in his bf-utf-source Debian package.
* Update any documentation accordingly.
* Fix the debian/control description for the "unifont" package noting
that it is now more than just a metapackage (to close minor bug
494662).
No source code will change. The glyph changes can be done quickly
with software I've been using for over half a year, so I consider the
font modification to be very low-risk. I will also check over the
entire font (bitmap and TrueType versions) before upload.
I need to do a little more research for a bug report, but if there is
a licensing concern it does sound RC and it affects all past versions
of the "unifont" package in Debian, and all past versions of the
Unifont font within and outside of Debian.
Can I make the modifications described above?
Paul Hardy
GPG Key ID: E6E6E390
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