Missing Unicode-3.0 license

[stefan6419846]

Documentation

With the script in https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Tools/unicode/makeunicodedata.py, Unicode data files are processed to store them in a custom format for further usage.

These data files are subject to the Unicode-3.0 license (https://www.unicode.org/license.txt), which requires including a copy of the license. I could not find it being mentioned in the repository, especially in https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.14.6/Python-3.14.6.tgz This possibly violates the license itself.

Linked PRs

• gh-154493: Add the Unicode license Doc/license.rst #154651

[StanFromIreland]

It’s hard to define if we store them or not, we extract some information from them and store it, but in a completely different format. How far does the license reach, does it go beyond the compilation and include the raw data itself? @malemburg maybe you remember if this was discussed back when we first added unicodedata?

For reference a similar question was asked before, and it appears people concluded this isn’t under the license: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/166840/unicode-license

[stefan6419846]

I am not a lawyer, but (as mentioned in the idna issue as well) even a specific compilation of otherwise non-protectable facts can be considered copyrightable under database law (at least in Germany/the EU). Thus taking the original Unicode-3.0 "database" and converting it to another "database" for usage in CPython can still trigger the obligations of the Unicode-3.0 license.

[malemburg]

It’s hard to define if we store them or not, we extract some information from them and store it, but in a completely different format. How far does the license reach, does it go beyond the compilation and include the raw data itself? @malemburg maybe you remember if this was discussed back when we first added unicodedata?

For reference a similar question was asked before, and it appears people concluded this isn’t under the license: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/166840/unicode-license

As far as I remember, there was no specific Unicode license on the 2.0 version of the Unicode database which disallowed using extracts. The README (https://ftp.unicode.org/Public/2.0-Update/ReadMe-2.0.14.txt) only talked about redistribution of the files themselves.

In any case, the v3 of the Unicode license applies to the current versions we have in Python and given that it's a very liberal license, I think we should include it in the Doc/license.rst license summary with a mention that Python ships with an extract of the Unicode database.