Transfer of copyright on death

[Andrew Stribblehill <a.d.stribblehill@durham.ac.uk>]

[Please Cc: me on this thread; I'm not on the list]

Hi. I've recently taken over the 9menu package. Looking over the
copyright file, it wasn't clear whether it passed DFSG 4. The
upstream maintainer has confirmed that in his reading of the
copyright, patched binaries may be distributed.

The sole maintainer collaborated with another author in writing the
program, and they have joint copyright. He would like to get it
relicenced under a standard licence but the other author has now
died. Is there any way to get it changed?

FYI, the current licence is below:

  9menu is free software, and is Copyright (c) 1994 by David Hogan and
  Arnold Robbins. Permission is granted to all sentient beings to use
  this software, to make copies of it, and to distribute those copies,
  provided that:

      (1) the copyright and licence notices are left intact
      (2) the recipients are aware that it is free software
      (3) any unapproved changes in functionality are either
            (i) only distributed as patches
        or (ii) distributed as a new program which is not called 9menu
                and whose documentation gives credit where it is due
      (4) the authors are not held responsible for any defects
          or shortcomings in the software, or damages caused by it.

  There is no warranty for this software.  Have a nice day.

-- 
Andrew Stribblehill <ads@debian.org>
Systems programmer, IT Service, University of Durham, England