Stephen Colebourne via tz said:
If you want to resolve the issue you need a rule that doesn't end up with users in Norway or Sweden requesting the time-zone for 1950 and getting the zone information of Germany instead.
But previously you wrote: | In addition, | at least one ID per ISO country is entitled to have full history back | to LMT, **even if it is innaccurate**. So *YOU* are saying that Norway is entitled to have full history but it doesn't have to be accurate. So Germany's pre-1970 history *is* fine for Norway. So you need to find a different reason for saying that ISO 3166 is important.
IMO the defining characteristic of what is or is not acceptable to merge zones across is ISO country boundaries. But I'd love to hear an alternate idea.
How about "places with the same time since 1970"? That's objective and non-political. -- Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler, Email: clive@davros.org | it will get its revenge. Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer Mobile: +44 7973 377646