No authoritative answers yet, sorry for that. But from the facts and the responses I got so far it looks like Graham Barr just didn't release the code under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License or such and doesn't mean to do so for whatever reason. I am not going to stalk GBARR to do so, and nobody should. If he does release in perl terms, fine.

All Things Must Pass.

Thanks, for the record I wasn't suggesting anybody stalk or harass anyone involved. I was just curious for the history behind the situation. As mentioned earlier, metacpan has a published source on github, and an API (see also MetaCPAN::Client). If you want to add some functionality or write a client to get the look and feel you want, these are options.

This too shall pass.