License Issue

[Guillaume Desnoix]

Hi,

First I really appreciate all the work done to clarify/unify our (free) 
desktops.

Now here is my request. I read a few specs and I think the license is 
not very clearly expressed for some items. Basicaly we have specs, data 
and code and I fail to understand which part is released under which 
license. Let's take an example: Shared MIME Database.

It includes a specification, a mimetype database in xml and a dew utils 
to update, merge, etc.
When you download the software archive, it comes with the COPYING file, 
being the GPLv2 and only that. Does it mean that the spec, the data and 
the code are distributed under the GPL ?

But on the other hand, xdgmime (LGPL/AFL), fluxbox (BSD), XFCE (LGPL) 
and probably others are not GPL'ed.

Please note that I have no problem with the GPL (most of my sofware is 
released under the GPL) but this is very important (at least for me) to 
have no doubt about the license of each element I used.

I think a page listing all the packages with their corresponding license 
is strongly needed.

Back on the mimetype archive,
can I write non-GPL'ed code implementing the mime spec ?
can I use/distribute the mimetype database with non-GPL'ed code ?
for the tools, my guess is they are GPL'ed and only that so no problem.

Regards, Guillaume