audit pre-2021-04-27 contributors to check for relicensing

[mr-c]

I'm checking to see which contributors have not agreed to the retroactive MIT licensing request, and documenting the evidence for those who did.

There are 520 323 unique author name/email addresses in the git history prior to 2021-04-07, so help is appreciated!

2024-06-27 Status:

• names starting with "A" through "M" are audited and notified via GitHub (where possible) by @mr-c
• names starting with "S" through "Z" have been added to the mailmap by @nsoranzo
• 100 people have been identified that may need to agree to the re-licensing

Todo:

• process author names starting with "N" through "R"
• request re-licensing from authors with "N" - "Z" names
• Double-check our work
• Rebase Switch to only MIT license #16970 & present evidence to the core team for merging which will remove the last references to Academic Free License.
• Celebrate 🥳 !

Please comment in this PR if you are working on this, to avoid duplication; state the alphabet letter you are working on, or some other indication

My process

1. Browse the author list and pick up where I left off: git log --all --before="2021-04-07" --pretty="%aN <%aE>" | sort -u | less
2. Put an entry in the .mailmap even if there is only one variant for that contributor
3. Add other variants to the .mailmap as they are found. Use the extended version (source name and email address) if the email address is generic, like <[email protected]>
4. Check git log for the most recent commit, and look it up at https://github.com/galaxyproject/galaxy/commit/${HASH} to get the GitHub username. Clicking on the username should bring up a list of all their contributions to this repo: https://github.com/galaxyproject/galaxy/commits?author=mr-c
5. If there is a post 2021-04-07 commit, click through to find the PR and ensure the the MIT retroactive license grant box was checked. Add the contributor's GitHub username, primary email address, and that URL to the first table in doc/relicensing/status.txt
6. If there isn't easy evidence for MIT re-licensing, then add their details to the second table in doc/relicensing/status.txt

Note: some contributors might be left out of the mailmap for privacy reasons. When in doubt, ask me privately.

• IMPORTANT remove .mailmap before merging

Periodically @mr-c is commenting on the relicensing confirmation PR: #16970 using this template:

Dear contributors to Galaxy tagged in this comment/PR:

Since 2021-04-07, Galaxy required MIT licensing for contributions.

We would like to re-license your prior contributions under the MIT license. This will help the entire project to switch to the MIT license from the Academic Free License which caused problems for packagers like Debian.

Please approve this pull request to signal your approval of this license change.

When you are done, feel free to `unsubscribe`; thank you! ❤️

![image](https://github.com/galaxyproject/galaxy/assets/1330696/8c372b0e-6185-4d51-8b6b-a1bd5ff022b6)

To approve, please go [to the files view](https://github.com/galaxyproject/galaxy/pull/16970/files), click `Review changes`, then click `Approve`, and finally click `Submit review`.

![image](https://github.com/galaxyproject/galaxy/assets/1330696/422e37cd-9a9f-4af6-b2ce-898953722a7c)

> MIT License
>
> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
>
> The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
>
> THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

[paste GitHub usernames here so they get a notification; check the preview, if the username isn't hyperlink then you've hit the maximum usernames per post, trim those extras off and save them for the next round]

How to test the changes?

(Select all options that apply)

• I've included appropriate automated tests.
• This is a refactoring of components with existing test coverage.
• Instructions for manual testing are as follows:

License

• I agree to license these and all my past contributions to the core galaxy codebase under the MIT license.

[mr-c]

I'm going to pause for now, I'll resume work on the As later

[nsoranzo]

@mr-c I've started from Z upwards, just pushed a commit, hopefully no conflicts with your work.

[mr-c]

Thank you @nsoranzo ; any updates to doc/relicensing/status.txt, or are you just doing a cleanup of the contributors list (also still helpful!)

[nsoranzo]

I am focusing on the mailmap currently.

[hexylena]

@natefoo and I have been in contact with @Slugger70's family regarding the relicensing of his contributions. We requested the agreement of someone who inherited these contributions, included a copy of the license and background information on why we were requesting it, and have an emailed confirmation from his son:

Yes, I agree that my father, Simon Gladman's historical contributions can be relicensed under MIT

[mr-c]

I set myself a reminder to do a bulk-emailing the first week of August using the email addresses we have.

[bgruening]

@joachimwolff @dpryan79 can you please look at this and maybe provide your blessing so we can relicene Galaxy to MIT?

[mr-c]

@joachimwolff @dpryan79 can you please look at this and maybe provide your blessing so we can relicene Galaxy to MIT?

Thanks @bgruening

@joachimwolff @dpryan79 The instructions are at #16970 (comment)