Alexis Lee memehack@btopenworld.com wrote:
Is this legal, first of all? Am I breaking the 'all linked code must be GPL' in reverse? I don't think I am, because his code will be available more freely than GPL.
http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CombinePublicDomainWithGPL It looks like yes, but be aware of this problem and clearly mark which is yours and the original.
Second, what criteria need to be met for a package to be orphaned? Bear in mind I've only just started USING Debian, let alone packaging, so all advice and webpages welcome.
For a Deb package, it needs the previous maintainer to have announced its orphaning and filed a bug against the "wnpp" package. (Work Needed, Packages Pending). http://bugs.debian.org/wnpp
Probably also good to read bits of http://www.uk.debian.org/doc/
In general, http://unmaintained.sourceforge.net/ may list unmaintained software, but it sometimes gets it wrong.