Steve - sorry we did not get back to you sooner, but things have been more hectic than you can imagine around here.
What it boils down to is that since John has passed away, ICE's contracts with him have ended.
That means that the programs he had, if you want to release them, must follow ICE's standards for software.
In short, this means:
1) The program must be freeware (you would have to remove the activation/code key stuff from the program) and you cannot charge for it. As for the idea of Charityware -- On that, I would say it would be permissable only if donations to charity were not mandatory; the user gets to select what charity to donate to, if they donate; and there are no nag screens (like those found in shareware) or limited functionality.
2) The program cannot contain large portions of ICE's IP (i.e. large sections of text copied from the books are a no-no - a few short skill or TP descriptions are one thing, but critical tables constitute a large portion of one (or more) of ICE's products, hence the reluctance to allow them in softare).
3) The programs were made using Filemaker, a proprietory software. Thus, I don't think that the licenses for Filemaker would be compatible with an Open Source license. So I don't think releasing the code under an Open Source License would be feasible
I think that this covers everything on ICE's end.