The article is true. When one has a symbol font that has no connection to Budhism, some countries have significant issues due to modern history.
Some countries have "issues" with the STAR OF DAVID and the HAMMER AND SICKLE, too.
This probably would have not been an issue if it were in a font that would normally use the character, like in the SimSun font for Chinese.
I don't have access to the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font, so I don't know what else it contains.
The symbol font had neither cultural context, nor correct Unicode mappings.
Symbols are used by lots of people; would it have been different if this symbol font had correct Unicode mappings?
I believe that our action was the right thing to do in this case.
Well, the tone of that Reuters article was really rather bizarre. Preparing utilities to "remove the characters from the system" seems like a lot of trouble to go to for an "issue" like this.
There are no plans to remove the characters from fonts where there is cultural context with Unicode mappings.
A font which has both of them is probably including them as the paired Buddhist symbols.
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Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com
