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License for the tzdata information
by Edwin Groothuis May 7, 2009

May 7, 2009

For all the years I have never worried about this, but today I got an email in my mailbox asking me "Since this is vendor imported data, we would like to register under which license this data is distributed.". Unfortunately I got not much info from Wikipedia, the tzdata or the tzcode files. The tzcode says "This code is in the public domain", but the tzdata doesn't have it, just a "This information is by no means authoritative". So... is there a license under which the tzdata is distributed? Edwin

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In which of four zones should lastThu 24:00 be used
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] May 6, 2009

May 6, 2009

Responses on the mailing list indicate that use of 24:00 in timezone source files is the way to go where appropriate. The question now is: where is where? There are four places currently using a "lastFri 0:00" rule for the start of DST now and into the future: Script started on Tue May 05 09:43:53 2009 lecserver$ grep -i max.*lastfri.*0:00.*1:00 * africa:Rule Egypt 1995 max - Apr lastFri 0:00s 1:00 S asia:Rule Jordan 2002 max - Mar lastFri 0:00s 1:00 S asia:Rule Palestine 2009 max - Mar lastFri 0:00 1:00 S asia:Rule Syria 2009 max - Mar lastFri 0:00 1:00 S lecserver$ exit script done on Tue May 05 09:44:14 2009 We've seen a report that Jordan should really be "...Mar lastThu 24:00..." What of the other three areas? (Alas, Egypt is the only one of the three where a look at old newspapers might help.) --ado

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FW: Revision History of TZ database
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

I'm forwarding this message Hardik Patel, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the list, please direct replies appropriately. --ado From: Hardik Patel [mailto:hardik@yahoo-inc.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 2:16 To: tz(a)lecserver.nci.nih.gov Cc: 'Hardik Patel' Subject: Revision History of TZ database Hi All, Where can I find revision history of changes that has happened in TZ database across given two versions? For example, I would like to know what all changes happened from TZ version 2007g to 2008c. I will appreciate any pointers/help regarding this. P.S. I have not subscribed to the timezone mailing list so kindly do ‘Reply All’ while responding this email thread else I will not be able to receive it. Thanks, Hardik

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Re: License for the tzdata information
by CHancuff＠aol.com April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

I should have never posted at 4am. I'm net experienced enough to know that I'd probably get clobbered for somethin'. Leave it to Clive to deliver the one-two punch! Cliff Hancuff In a message dated 4/29/2009 11:59:26 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, clive(a)davros.org writes: CHancuff(a)aol.com said: > The Berne Convention follows US Copyright law rather closely. Um, the US adopted the Berne Convention relatively recently. The rest of the world has been following it for far longer. -- Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler, Email: clive(a)davros.org | it will get its revenge. Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer Mobile: +44 7973 377646 **************Big savings on Dell XPS Laptops and Desktops!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220631276x1201390200/aol… click.net%2Fclk%3B214101948%3B35952020%3Bv)

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Fwd: License for the tzdata information
by CHancuff＠aol.com April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

The Berne Convention follows US Copyright law rather closely. _Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literar…) Cliff Hancuff ____________________________________ From: asmodai(a)in-nomine.org Reply-to: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov To: tz(a)lecserver.nci.nih.gov CC: tz(a)lecserver.nci.nih.gov Sent: 4/29/2009 1:15:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time Subj: Re: License for the tzdata information -On [20090429 01:28], Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] (olsona(a)dc37a.nci.nih.gov) wrote: >There's no license. That might actually cause problems in Germany, I think. -- Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven <asmodai(-at-)in-nomine.org> / asmodai イェルーンラウフロックヴァンデルウェルヴェン http://www.in-nomine.org/ | http://www.rangaku.org/ | GPG: 2EAC625B Tattva, achintya bheda abheda tattva... **************Big savings on Dell XPS Laptops and Desktops!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220631276x1201390200/aol… click.net%2Fclk%3B214101948%3B35952020%3Bv)

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Re: License for the tzdata information
by CHancuff＠aol.com April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

David is right. Jonas makes a valuable point, of sorts. The only value for registering a copyright, of any kind, of this collective public domain database is to protect the good name of this mailing list, tz. Other than that, there's little cause for "must be"'s (-es(?)) The potential complexity of this registration may be the spoiler. Cliff Hancuff In a message dated 4/29/2009 2:30:46 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jonas(a)mailup.net writes: The data must be made available under a public domain license. Data must be placed into the public domain to be unconstrained by copyright and to be available for both non-commercial and commercial usage. Science Commons [1] recommends the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License [2] or the Creative Commons CC0 license [3]. You must read the first link to understand how important is use a public domain license for data. [1] http://sciencecommons.org/resources/faq/database-protocol/ [2] http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/pddl/1.0/ [3] http://creativecommons.org/license/zero/ On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:14 +0200, "Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven" <asmodai(a)in-nomine.org> wrote: > -On [20090429 01:28], Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] > (olsona(a)dc37a.nci.nih.gov) wrote: > >There's no license. > > That might actually cause problems in Germany, I think. -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love email again **************Big savings on Dell XPS Laptops and Desktops!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220631276x1201390200/aol… click.net%2Fclk%3B214101948%3B35952020%3Bv)

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Re: License for the tzdata information
by CHancuff＠aol.com April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

What Clive said. It's 4am here and I wasn't thinkin' clearly. Thanks Clive. Cliff Hancuff In a message dated 4/29/2009 3:38:07 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, clive(a)davros.org writes: CHancuff(a)aol.com said: > Edwin, some years ago there was talk of forming a sub-group of this mailing > list to tie down the loose ends to make this data register-able. Since > all tzcode is derived from public domain, the only copyrightable part of it > would be it, as a collective work. Not so - there is a difference between copyright on facts (doesn't exist) and copyright on the way those facts are expressed (does exist). So the specific format of the data is copyrightable. So is anything that is a guess or extrapolation. > To the best of my Intellectual Property Law knowledge, tzcode is > intrinsically in public domain, Not a concept that exists in my jurisdiction. -- Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler, Email: clive(a)davros.org | it will get its revenge. Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer Mobile: +44 7973 377646 **************Big savings on Dell XPS Laptops and Desktops!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220631276x1201390200/aol… click.net%2Fclk%3B214101948%3B35952020%3Bv)

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Re: License for the tzdata information
by CHancuff＠aol.com April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

Edwin, some years ago there was talk of forming a sub-group of this mailing list to tie down the loose ends to make this data register-able. Since all tzcode is derived from public domain, the only copyrightable part of it would be it, as a collective work. I dropped out of that group very early on, due to my interest in marketing my private collection of public domain time zone data on my own. To the best of my Intellectual Property Law knowledge, tzcode is intrinsically in public domain, unless one of its contributors objects. I've been on this list for well over a decade and can't imagine anyone would. Cliff Hancuff In a message dated 4/28/2009 6:01:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, edwin(a)mavetju.org writes: For all the years I have never worried about this, but today I got an email in my mailbox asking me "Since this is vendor imported data, we would like to register under which license this data is distributed.". Unfortunately I got not much info from Wikipedia, the tzdata or the tzcode files. The tzcode says "This code is in the public domain", but the tzdata doesn't have it, just a "This information is by no means authoritative". So... is there a license under which the tzdata is distributed? Edwin **************Big savings on Dell XPS Laptops and Desktops!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220631276x1201390200/aol… click.net%2Fclk%3B214101948%3B35952020%3Bv)

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24:00 versus 23:59:59--insights?
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] April 28, 2009

April 28, 2009

There are a few places with rules such as "... lastFri 0:00 ..." that should be "... lastThu 24:00 ..." One possibility is to rewrite the rules that way; doing so buys error messages from pre-1998 versions of zic. Another possibility is to rewrite the rules as "... lastThu 23:59:59 ..." which works with pre-1998 versions of zic but is a second off. A third way is to use 24:00 and, where it is used, include a comment about either upgrading zic or using the 23:59:59 dodge. I'd appreciate any insights on how to go forward. --ado

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24:00 versus 23:59:59--another possibility
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] April 28, 2009

April 28, 2009

Yet another possibility is to add a special case to zic to treat instances of 23:59:59 as if they were 24:00; this lets us use 23:59:59 in input files to make pre-1998 versions of zic happy and to get correct-to-the-second results out of post-2009 versions of zic. --ado

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