libass 0.9.9 was just released and I'd like to have it integrated into Lucid, if possible, as the new release includes important bugfixes. From the changelog:
libass (0.9.9)
* Parse numbers in a locale-independent way
* Remove support for freetype < 2.2.1, fontconfig < 2.4.1; this especially
means libass will not extract fonts into the file system anymore
* Disable script file size limit
* Match fonts against the full name ("name for humans")
* Reset clip mode after \iclip
* Improve VSFilter compatibility
* Update API documentation
* A couple of smaller fixes and cleanups
Especially the first point is important, as it unbreaks libass on many locales which use a comma as the decimal separator in numbers. Also, the \iclip fix can be important, as the internal state of libass can be easily screwed up if the \iclip feature is used without the fix.
There haven't been many changes apart from bugfixes in 0.9.9, so an update should be trivial and free of side effects.
Updated source package.