What Rinn's script does... at least, my version of it... is imports miner, uses checks to decide which ore is needed, and then has mine_stuff from miner actually get the ores.
But that's one free/public script using another free/public script.
I think that the scripts included in Ascend are the ones that dj_d talked with the script creators on, generally made sure that the version included in Ascend worked with the rest of Ascend, then took out the update parts so that people wouldn't break it. But that's my understanding, which isn't necessarily based on accuracy or other such confusing things.
The main reason why that would need the script writer's permission is that when their script fails because of something they've fixed 8 months ago, it's good to know why people aren't updating, and who you need to get to update stuff to make it work right again...