future JSwat versions to be SPL

Going forward, I plan to license JSwat under the Sun Public License
(SPL: http://www.netbeans.org/about/legal/spl.html). Why is that, you
ask? Allow me to explain.

The 1.x and 2.x versions of JSwat are covered by the GNU General Public
License (GPL: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html), which has worked
fine up until now, since JSwat is a stand-alone application.

For the 3.x and later versions of JSwat, however, I plan on using the
NetBeans Platform (http://www.netbeans.org/products/platform/). This
platform provides an astounding number of benefits to not only myself
but to JSwat's users as well. However, the GPL does not allow me to
bundle the NetBeans Platform with JSwat as a single package, since
NetBeans is covered by the SPL and it is incompatible with the GPL.

Additionally, I would like to permit the development of non-free plugins
to JSwat (in the form of NetBeans modules that link against JSwat). This
would be useful to a corporate entity that wants to use the JSwat
functionality and develop additional functionality specific to their own
product or platform. The GPL does not allow this.

Those are the two reasons for wanting to change the license to something
other than the GPL. So what license to use? It is unclear if the Lesser
General Public License (LGPL: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html) is
compatible with the SPL. It seems to me that it is much simpler to
choose the SPL and avoid any confusion and complications going forward.

So why am I telling you all this? Because some of you contributed code
to JSwat under your own copyright; I cannot relicense your copyrighted
work without your permission. Granted, some of your code may be lost in
the transition to the NetBeans platform (using it will render at least
25% of JSwat's code redundant), however some of it will still be useful.
In those cases, I would very much like to keep your contributions. If
you will allow me, I would like to relicense your contributions to the
SPL. If not, then your code will not be included in 3.x and later
versions of JSwat.

If I don't hear from you, I will assume I do not have your permission,
in which case your contribution will be excluded.

Thank you.

n