It has come to my attention that in 1.4 version of STK the character Beastie was replaced with Godette in the main roster. I do not mind Godette's inclusion, but the demotion of one of the most iconic free software mascots to an addon puzzled me. Looking into it, I found a previous topic where which someone took issue with the fact that Beastie and Hexley were characters under full copyright. I thought maybe this was the source of Beastie's removal, but almost everyone else (including Kirk McKusick himself) seemed fine with it. Also, if not having 100% free assets was really the reason then Hexley would have been removed too.
Looking further, Beastie's description on the his addon page claims that his removal was due to a "licensing problem." This was interesting, as again, Beastie's removal had to be over an issue separate from making STK 100% free. It made me wonder is Kirk McKusick actually revoked the permission previously granted to STK. After sending him an email he had this to say.
I did not revoke permission for STK to use Beastie. Indeed I did not know until this email that he had been removed. I do remember the claim that STK had GPL'ed Beastie and having an email exchange with them in which they clarified that they had not done so. I have been completely happy with STK's appropriate use of Beastie.
Now I ask my full question. Why was Beastie removed if Hexley is still allowed and Kirk McKusick's permission is still valid?