Here is the email conversation containing the grant of licence from James McKenzie, the original author and principal copyrightholder: ============================================================ From: Ian Jackson To: [James McKenzie] Subject: Licence for sympathy Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2014 17:33:09 +0000 Hi. As you know we're using sympathy [ description of situation deleted -iwj ]. I would like to solve this problem by packaging it. I'd probably put it in Debian. What I absolutely need from you (or whoever is the copyright holder) is a licence statement. That could be as simple as saying `yes' to `please can I distribute sympathy and serialmgr under AGPLv3+' (or pick some less fierce licence). As a bonus, if you have an existing git history I should be using, it would be convenient for everyone if I could have a copy, or a copy of your CVS repo. But maybe you would need to launder your history for that. So in any case please don't let "this isn't the best version" stop you from giving permission. Thanks, Ian. ============================================================ From: [James McKenzie] To: Ian Jackson Subject: Re: Licence for sympathy Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 18:21:15 +0000 On 6 November 2014 17:33:09 GMT+00:00, Ian Jackson wrote: >[ quoted text deleted; see above for a copy -iwj ] gpl2 or lgpl please let me think which overnight also ill make an email addr fo\ r it ============================================================ From: Ian Jackson To: [James McKenzie] Subject: Re: Licence for sympathy Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2014 11:21:31 +0000 James writes ("Re: Licence for sympathy"): > gpl2 or lgpl please let me think which overnight also ill make an email addr \ for it Right. If you choose GPL can it please be GPL2+ rather than GPL2-only, since the latter lacks compatibility with lots of things... Anyway, I'll get to work on it. Thanks, Ian. ============================================================ From: [James McKenzie] To: Ian Jackson Subject: Re: Licence for sympathy Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 12:42:06 +0000 On 11/07/2014 11:21 AM, Ian Jackson wrote: > James writes ("Re: Licence for sympathy"): >> gpl2 or lgpl please let me think which overnight also ill make an email addr\ for it > > Right. If you choose GPL can it please be GPL2+ rather than > GPL2-only, since the latter lacks compatibility with lots of things... Right I'm loath to use GPL2+, as whilst the intentions are good I don't trust the politics, so lets go with LGPL (or even BSD) [ irrelevant personal communication paragraph deleted -iwj. ] J. ============================================================ From: Ian Jackson To: [James McKenzie] Subject: Re: Licence for sympathy Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2014 14:10:43 +0000 James writes ("Re: Licence for sympathy"): > Right I'm loath to use GPL2+, as whilst the intentions are good I don't > trust the politics, so lets go with LGPL (or even BSD) OK. I assume you mean LGPLv2.1+. But if you meant LGPLv3+ or LGPLv2.1-only or MIT (or 2-clause BSD) do say. I did a git-cvsimport on your anon-CVS. Would you like me to graft the thing I found on woking on the top of that, or would you like me to avoid publishing your CVS history more widely ? I'm dropping the DOCS directory because it looks like a bunch of samizdat. Very useful, but wouldn't get through copyright review for Debian NEW. [ irrelevant personal communication paragraphs deleted -iwj. ] Ian. ============================================================ From: Ian Jackson To: [James McKenzie] Subject: Re: Licence for sympathy Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:31:15 +0000 James writes ("Re: Licence for sympathy"): > sorry got waylaid yesterday will try and sort all this out today - where > did you intend to put the repository? github? I was going to use my own colo (and upload to Debian sid). But if you want a more shareish cloudy kind of repo, I'll use gitorious. (Free Software needs Free tools[1]) Do you want me to email you a link to a git branch for you to double-check, before I publish more widely ? Ian. [1] http://mako.cc/writing/hill-free_tools.html ============================================================ From: [James McKenzie] To: Ian Jackson Subject: Re: Licence for sympathy Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:41:40 +0000 On 12/11/14 12:31, Ian Jackson wrote: > James writes ("Re: Licence for sympathy"): >> sorry got waylaid yesterday will try and sort all this out today - where >> did you intend to put the repository? github? your repo is fine, I'll stick a copy in mine or we can just use mine. > I was going to use my own colo (and upload to Debian sid). But if you > want a more shareish cloudy kind of repo, I'll use gitorious. (Free > Software needs Free tools[1]) > > Do you want me to email you a link to a git branch for you to > double-check, before I publish more widely ? yes please did I say I'd made sympathy@madingley.org to take inbound email about it? J.