- the art (PNG and SVG images) is released under CC-BY-SA 4.0. This means it's okay for commercial and non-commercial use, as long as you include attribution ("BY"). You can also modify the images and redistribute as long as you don't change the licensing terms ("Sharealike", or SA)
- the code (PHP and javascript) libraries is GPL v2.
That's just Apple being typically arrogant (and other font designers following them, sadly).
The way to write a flag in emoji is to combine the two letters of its country code; e.g. for the French flag you write REGIONAL INDICATOR F + REGIONAL INDICATOR R. The font then magically turns that two-character sequence into a single glyph.
An emoji font could include up to 676 (26*26) flags; I think WhatsApp has something like 45 flags already (on Android).
My understanding is that Apple just included the standard Japanese emoji set, to help sell iPhones in japan. For a long time they were even hidden on non-Japanese iPhones.
The standard Japanese emoji set is pretty randomly put together and I don't remember my old keitai having that many country flags.
Doesn't this also mean that using the code in any web app would put the entire app (or at least all of the frontend code) under the terms of GPL, too?
That's how I usually see the license explained. If so, that's a bit absurd for a small "polish" library like this, especially one that hopes to "[excite] a new emoji lifestyle and culture for the web".
From their license:
- the art (PNG and SVG images) is released under CC-BY-SA 4.0. This means it's okay for commercial and non-commercial use, as long as you include attribution ("BY"). You can also modify the images and redistribute as long as you don't change the licensing terms ("Sharealike", or SA)
- the code (PHP and javascript) libraries is GPL v2.