One rumour that I do feel unfortunately compelled to address is the concept that there is any legal ambiguity or action surrounding Class::DBI.
I am unaware of any legal issues relating to the code or use of it, and have never been party to any action, or any threatened action, in respect of it, either as plaintiff or as defendant.
As a director of several UK companies I have been, and currently am, involved in litigaton in relation to other completely unrelated matters, but none of this has ever been connected to open source code or projects in any way.
Sometimes 2 + 2 really does just equal 4.