Yes. I asked Wietse about it some weeks ago and I understood from his reply that he is trying to change it.
I've been speaking with some of them and encouraging them too; I'm glad that Debian folk are also helping. I believe that the developers in IBM are sincerely trying to solve this problem. But we must't count this chicken until it hatches, because we cannot be certain that it will. In this kind of affair, success is not necessarily just a matter of time. Until they actually do solve the problem, we have to keep pointing out that the programs with their current licenses remain non-free. (But without demonizing them personally, of course.)