Draft of email to Nunavut regarding Inuktitut

[Ryan Thiessen]

Looks like my email to the list is working again.  :-)

As discussed on #ubuntu-ca yesterday, we are trying to acquire a free 
Inuktitut font that we can include with Ubuntu.  We found several varients 
which are all under proprietary or otherwise restricted licences.  What I 
see as our best hope for this is the government of Nunavut which has fonts 
up on their website posted without a specific licence, so I am writing to 
them to clarify.

I adapated much of this text from a similar email Corey wrote, and got 
some feedback from him and LaptopSSa (sorry don't know the real name 
there).  Since I want to write this on behalf of the whole group, any more 
feedback would be great so it can honestly be bylined as from our group.

Cheers,
-Ryan Thiessen-

---

Hello,

I am writing you on behalf of Ubuntu-Canada, a group of Canadian members 
and enthusiasts of the Ubuntu project.  Ubuntu, which means "Humanity to 
others" in Zulu, is a modern and powerful Linux-based Operating System, 
designed for all types of computers.  Ubuntu is built upon free and open 
source software, which allows the user to change and redistrbute the 
software freely.  It is being used and developed by people in all parts of 
the world.  One of the major advantages of Ubuntu is that it can be 
adapted to fit almost any computer, whether new or from 5 years ago.

Ubuntu Linux is a worldwide project and currently offers support for 
dozens of languages around the world.  One of the main goals of the 
project is that everyone should be able to use their computer software in 
their own local language.  Thus we at Ubuntu-Canada have undertaken the 
goal of providing Ubuntu, the operation system and all the applications 
that run on it, completely in Inuktitut.

As a first step towards this goal we need to find a font for Inuktitut 
that we can freely redistribute with all of Ubuntu, not just in Canada but 
to the world.  Once we have a font that we can include with the project, 
we can then undertake the task of converting all of the applications into 
Inuktitut, eventually providing a system in which every program a user 
requires is available in that language.  We have found a font that works 
with Ubuntu Linux on your website at http://www.gov.nu.ca/font.htm, 
however we require the right to redistribute the font in an appropriate 
free software licence.

Regarding the fonts on your website, is there a contact person who you 
could put us in contact with whom we could discuss the licence of those 
fonts and the potential for redistribution?

Thank you for your consideration,
The Ubuntu-Canada team.