[gnutls-dev]GNU TLS OpenSSL compatibility layer under GPL, not LGPL

[Jeff Licquia]

I maintain the CUPS printing software for Debian, which (as distributed
upstream) can use the OpenSSL library for SSL support.  CUPS's libraries
are distributed under the LGPL; this is an intentional decision by
CUPS's upstream author that I wish to preserve in Debian.

I have written a patch for CUPS to use the OpenSSL compatibility code in
GNU TLS, but upstream noticed something I didn't: the compatibility
library is in libgnutls-extra, which is still under the GPL.  This
seemed odd to me; all of the reasons expressed for relicensing under the
LGPL seem to apply most notably to the OpenSSL layer, as this is what
enables developers to easily transition to GNU TLS.

So, I'm writing to ask a few questions:

 - Is this intentional?  I can see the argument that a compatibility API
is "extra" in the technical sense, so it might seem to belong there.

 - Would the authors consider changing the license on the OpenSSL layer
to the LGPL?  I am not concerned so much with the rest of gnutls-extra,
or how the code ends up being organized.

If this discussion has been hashed out elsewhere, I apologize for
bringing it up again; please post a link.  I could not find any such
discussion in your list archives.