GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 162370
Print the table!
Last modified: 2021-06-02 09:09:50 UTC
I just wanna get a paper copy of selected unicode table. ;)
Re-assign to default owner and QA.
*** Bug 561908 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Note that bug #561908 is slightly different
Saw this in the roadmap: GNOME Character Map * Ability to print charts of characters with pangocairo Assuming this is the bug, just wanted to say that any printed charts may not use the same layout used by the Unicode Consortium, as they consider it copyrighted. Just use a different layout.
Roozbeh: they need to patent it for your claim to make any sense. That's the mistake Apple made... using copyright to claim ownership on ideas. Of course, Microsoft just took them and the judge agreed that they don't owe Apple anything.
Behdad, IANAL, but this is not an idea. The "idea" part of this is presenting characters in a chart, which everyone is entitled to. But copyright protects the presentation part of what Unicode has done. Random quote from Wikipedia: "Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed." So, if we want to print Unicode character charts with 16 rows and a hex digit on each row and the rest of the character code at top of each column, write the character code under each glyph, and gray-out the area for not-yet-encoded characters, that may be illegal copying. What I suggest is, if we really want to print character charts (as opposed to what Nicolas suggested in bug 561908), we should redesign it. Otherwise, our work could be considered unlicensed derivative work. Still, since GNOME is a member of Unicode, we probably don't want to get on their nerves. We can ask them officially, if you do not object. CC-ing Luis, asking for insight and advice.
(In reply to comment #6) > Behdad, IANAL, but this is not an idea. The "idea" part of this is presenting > characters in a chart, which everyone is entitled to. That's what I'm saying indeed. > But copyright protects the presentation part of what Unicode has done. Random > quote from Wikipedia: "Copyright does not cover ideas and information > themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed." The expression of the idea is the code generating it or the generated output. Since we are not literally copying any of those, we're good. > So, if we want to print Unicode character charts with 16 rows and a hex digit > on each row and the rest of the character code at top of each column, write the > character code under each glyph, and gray-out the area for not-yet-encoded > characters, that may be illegal copying. No that's not. We are not using source code or generated output from the consortium. Really, copyright is for something you have created, patent is for ideas. A certain layout is an idea. A piece of source code or a generated output is copyrightable. The idea of generated such a thing is at best patentable. See: http://lowendmac.com/orchard/06/apple-vs-microsoft.html To quote: "...and most of the other ten were not violations of Apple's copyright due to the merger doctrine (the merger doctrine stipulates that ideas cannot be copyrighted). In the case of Apple vs. Microsoft, many of the displays Apple contested were ideas and could not be protected by copyright." What you say is like saying that "application windows are copyright by company X, so doing them in GNOME is making derivative work". Think about wine or any other "free reimplementation" project. Those would have been totally illegal if your reasoning was to be followed. > What I suggest is, if we really want to print character charts (as opposed to > what Nicolas suggested in bug 561908), we should redesign it. Otherwise, our > work could be considered unlicensed derivative work. To produce derivative work, one needs to use an original to begin with. > Still, since GNOME is a member of Unicode, we probably don't want to get on > their nerves. We can ask them officially, if you do not object. I' sure we can work something out. I'm more talking theoretically. > CC-ing Luis, asking for insight and advice.
For the record, IANAL.
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message -- This bug has been migrated to GNOME's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity. You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gucharmap/-/issues/135.