Re: Boost.Text review

From: Darryl Green (darryl.green_at_[hidden])
Date: 2020-06-21 08:33:48

On Sun, 21 Jun 2020, 7:42 am Zach Laine via Boost,
<boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 1:25 PM Vinnie Falco via Boost
> <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 11:22 AM Phil Endecott via Boost
> > <boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> > > if I understand correctly, Zach's code includes tables that are
> > > derived from Unicode data and the licence for that data requires
> > > a copyright attribution.
> >
> > Could we ask the owner of the copyright to dual-license the data under
> > the BSL? That might be a cheap and easy solution.
>
> Maybe?  I'll email the one ICU developer I've ever spoken to, and see
> if he can direct me to the right person to ask about this.

The use that was made of the .txt data files to extract the
information needed to produce headers that are part of Boost.Text is
in my opinion fine. Boost.Text users never use or need access to these
.txt files.

If one takes the contrary view that the licence of these files is
something that the user of Boost.Text needs to care about, then be
aware that it is unlikely any single person or entity can re-license
these files as I believe they may have various contributors/licences.
I would try to avoid pulling on that string for fear of the tangle
that is likely at the end of it.

That said, it might be possible to ask ICU for explicit authorisation
(to the extent they alone can give it) for the use of the .txt files
as a source of constant data required to process unicode in accordance
with the standard without requiring that headers in Boost.Text that
embed those constants, for that purpose, be licenced under the ICU
licence. One reasonably expects that was their intent in producing
these files, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

With or without that confirmation it would be good practice to cite
the source of the DATA values (not code) in Boost.Text documentation
and/or in the headers that embed the constants.

>
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