ICU-22922 BRS77 update license file #3373
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| @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ UNICODE LICENSE V3 | |||
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| COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE | |||
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| Copyright © 2016-2024 Unicode, Inc. | |||
| Copyright © 1991-2025 Unicode, Inc. | |||
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@pedberg-icu says this should be a 100% copy from the Unicode website.
@macchiati & @michelleperham to confirm what appears to be a policy change, and provide a reference.
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Also @srl295 has info on this
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@annebright does the start year on the ICU license file need to change to 1991?
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2016 is when we changed the Unicode license and moved ICU to Unicode and under this license.
I can't judge whether later revisions (now "V3") of the license are so significant that the start date should be later than 2016.
Either way, it seems weird for https://www.unicode.org/license.txt to have “Copyright © 1991-2024 Unicode, Inc.” with a start date before 2016.
In my under-informed opinion, 1991 makes sense for the Unicode Standard, but not for the current license.
As for the end date 2024 or 2025, if there is a new policy of not updating that any more, that would be fine, but it would be useful to have a link to something that says that.
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Markus is correct. The dates in the ICU (and all ICU-related repos) are correct and should not change. First of all, the copyright start date is generally the date of first publication of the content of the repo. Even IBM had not published ICU in 1991, so 1991 is the wrong date no matter what. (See, Licensing Setup Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZyZ033JHYPlK8ECHm5umtMkq_ZuEvrZh_HpB6zQGed4/edit?gid=2005994577#gid=2005994577) Second, ICU gets "custom" treatment because IBM owns the copyright in the original ICU (and only licenses it to us) and we only took it over in 2016, after which we own the rights in further developments of ICU. So, the Unicode copyright starts in 2016, and the IBM copyright (noted in the IBM ICU license in the ICU repo license file) starts in 1995.
As a rule, we do not want to mess with copyright start dates in Github - we went through an exhaustive exercise to determine, or make a best estimate, of dates of first publication for the content of each repo. That is not to say we got it right in every case, but we shouldn't be changing them unless we have new info that indicates we got it wrong when we did the big exercise.
Why is this coming up?
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We discussed this yesterday, and I understood you to say that https://www.unicode.org/license.txt should have 2016-2025 instead of the current 1991-2024. It would be best if https://www.unicode.org/license.txt could get fixed, so that we can re-copy it into our LICENSE file. Otherwise maybe @yumaoka should just change the date range in our copy to 2016-2025 so that we can finish our customary update.
Yes the end date needs to be updated to 2025, across all active repos and the website. I have added this topic to the agenda for Infra next Tuesday. As for the ICU repo, I would not pull in the license text from the website because, even once updated to a 2025 end date, it has the 1991 start date (which is correct for the website) and if you copy the license text from the website, you'll get the 1991 start date, which is not correct for the ICU license file. The Unicode License copyright line in the ICU license file needs to have a start date of 2016. So, the upshot is that @yumaoka should just change the date range in our copy to 2016-2025 so that you can finish your update.
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As for the ICU repo, I would not pull in the license text from the website because, even once updated to a 2025 end date, it has the 1991 start date (which is correct for the website)
That seems wrong. Yes, Unicode as a whole goes back to 1991, but the license text was materially changed in 2016, and has had that as a start date ever since.
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We are talking past each other - let's discuss it on the Infra call Tuesday.
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Plus, when I talked about the Unicode license.txt file, you replied “we are in violent agreement - the start date should not change”.
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I withdraw my statements about the start date. They were based on the false assumption -- based on discussion in the ICU meeting -- that we have always copied the Unicode license.txt completely into the ICU LICENSE.
I checked the Internet Archive for what the Unicode license.txt actually looked like over time:
https://web.archive.org/web/20250101000000*/https://www.unicode.org/license.txt
In fact, ever since this filename appeared in 2021, the copyright start date has been 1991.
Sorry @annebright for not checking the facts myself earlier!
@yumaoka if the BRS task instructions say to copy the complete license.txt file verbatim, then please fix them to say that the copyright start date must remain 2016 for ICU.
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Yumaoka, All, I am well aware of what's in the ICU license file - I am Unicode's IP counsel. The IBM ICU License is in the ICU license file immediately following the Unicode License, and the dates on it should not change. The only date that should change (as part of our annual update at the beginning of each year) is that the end of the date range for the Unicode License should be updated from 2024 to 2025. That's all. This is all laid out in the Licensing Setup spreadsheet (which I previously linked to), and these updates should be done only by the Infra Team. Nobody else needs to be involved. So I'd like to understand why others are involved and why we have a bunch of folks commenting on this and getting everyone confused. |
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@annebright for every ICU release, we refresh the first part of the ICU LICENSE file from https://www.unicode.org/license.txt Normally, the only thing that changes is that for the spring release we see the copyright end year go up.
Both surprised us. |
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Markus - we are in violent agreement - the start date should not change - I don't know why it did. It should be 2016. As indicated in the setup spreadsheet. Who is driving these changes? I need to talk to them.... We have a process for this and a spreadsheet with instructions. |
I have no idea who changed https://www.unicode.org/license.txt Maybe @glechner9147 can tell who touched the file when? |
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Hi, Markus,
Unfortunately I cannot find anything in the bash history or syslog on the
server to point to a change date or who made the change. The logs roll
over quickly and don't go back over a long enough time frame.
The owner of the file is the officers account, but it could also have been
modified using root.
I have one other place that I can look at, but not hopeful.
If I find anything I'll let you know.
Gregg
…On Thu, Feb 6, 2025 at 10:06 PM Markus Scherer ***@***.***> wrote:
Markus - we are in violent agreement - the start date should not change -
I don't know why it did. It should be 2016. As indicated in the setup
spreadsheet. Who is driving these changes? I need to talk to them....
I have no idea who changed https://www.unicode.org/license.txt
Maybe @glechner9147 <https://github.com/glechner9147> can tell who
touched the file when?
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Would you like me to update the file directly on the server?
It's a quick edit.
Gregg
…On Fri, Feb 7, 2025 at 1:51 PM Markus Scherer ***@***.***> wrote:
***@***.**** commented on this pull request.
------------------------------
In LICENSE
<#3373 (comment)>:
> @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ UNICODE LICENSE V3
COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE
-Copyright © 2016-2024 Unicode, Inc.
+Copyright © 1991-2025 Unicode, Inc.
We discussed this yesterday, and I understood you to say that
https://www.unicode.org/license.txt should have 2016-2025 instead of the
current 1991-2024.
It would be best if https://www.unicode.org/license.txt could get fixed,
so that we can re-copy it into our LICENSE file.
Otherwise maybe @yumaoka <https://github.com/yumaoka> should just change
the date range in our copy to 2016-2025 so that we can finish our customary
update.
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@glechner9147 - the end date on the copyright notices on the website and all active repos does need to be updated to 2025. I have added this to the Infra agenda for Tuesday. We can discuss then exactly what needs to be done and where and by whom. |
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Everyone please reply to pull request comments on the GitHub UI, not via email. Replying via email breaks the comment threading. And when you at-mention on GitHub, remember to use the correct GitHub IDs. GitHub ID "Gregg" is not “our Gregg”. I edited Anne's last comment, but the other Gregg will still scratch his head over the notification that he received. |
| @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ UNICODE LICENSE V3 | |||
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| COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION NOTICE | |||
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| Copyright © 2016-2024 Unicode, Inc. | |||
| Copyright © 1991-2025 Unicode, Inc. | |||
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@yumaoka : It sounds like, regardless of the confusion about the source of truth, this should be the date range in the ICU copy. Please apply and move on.
| Copyright © 1991-2025 Unicode, Inc. | |
| Copyright © 2016-2025 Unicode, Inc. |
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