[gnutls-devel] end of life of 2.12 and possible relicense on 3.1

[Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos]

Hello,
 Unless someone else steps up and is willing to maintain 2.12.x I no
longer plan to maintain it. The code base differs significantly with 3.x
and backporting takes too much time.

Also I am considering into having the next releases in 3.1.x under
LGPLv2.1 instead of LGPLv3. This is a first step to solve the
compatibility issues of gnutls with GPLv2 programs. However, to
completely solve that issue, one would also need to use an older gmp
library also licensed under LGPLv2.1. (I have not tested that scenario,
but in the worst case it may require small changes in nettle or gnutls).

For the relicensing to happen the authors of contributed code after the
relicense to LGPLv3 date (2011-06-08) have to agree. Note that is only
about the authors of library code, no relicensing happens on
documentation (FDL) or the included programs (GPLv3).

After checking the history in the repository, I've contacted the
following authors and asked them whether they would agree to relicense
their code under LGPLv2.1:

David Woodhouse: Agreed
Ilya Tumaykin: Agreed
Ludwig Nussel: Agreed
Martin Storsjo: Agreed
Stef Walter: Agreed
Collabra (Guy Lunardi): Agreed
Simon Josefsson: Agreed
Olga Smolenchuk: Didn't agree

I've tried to check the history carefully, but it is quite a long
period, so if I have missed any author of code you are aware of please
let me know.

If the above is correct, then the heartbeat handling code (which is
based on Olga's contribution) will be made optional (it is already
optional on the current release), and the library compiled by default
will be available under LGPLv2.1.

best regards,
Nikos