[Uim] License question

[TOKUNAGA Hiroyuki]

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:58:50 +0200
Jeroen Ruigrok/asmodai <asmodai at in-nomine.org> wrote:

> -On [20050718 13:53], TOKUNAGA Hiroyuki (tkng at xem.jp) wrote:
> >Because uim is a library, most case it is linked from applications.
> >Most of the uim are BSDL, but some parts of the uim are GPL because
> >they are derived from applications/libraries licensed under GPL.
> 
> Mmm, means it will virally infect the entire program.

Yes, but there is a way to avoid. i.e. Use of server program such as
uim-agent. I don't want to use server for simple languages, but it's OK
to use a server program for complex languages.


> What parts are GPL and why not rewrite it?

I checked license of uim. GPL parts are pinyin table only. (A LGPLed
file is also found, but it's not a problem). Why not rewrite it is
because it's hard to rewrite. Rewriting that table would need a wide
range of knowledge of Chinese, but I don't have.

To avoid the license problem, we have following solutions.

1. Create backend server to split GPL part

2. Find out free pinyin table from somewhere

3. Convert pinyin table to other format. Now it's described as program
obviously, but it's data in essentials. If we can convert pinyin table
to other data format, libuim would not be affectted by GPL. (Maybe it's
gray.)


Regards,

-- 
TOKUNAGA Hiroyuki
tkng at xem.jp