[Asterisk-Biz] Asterisk licensing, yet again (was: SS7 available for Asterisk)

[Roderick Montgomery]

William Waites wrote:
> [snip]
> Jeremy, it's funny how this issue keeps comming up again and 
> again. You are correct that, technically, the GPL allows this.
> What Digium is doing is indeed legal. Barely.
 > [snip]


William, your characterization of Digium's licensing as barely legal is 
simply wrong on its face, and it unfairly casts Digium as a shady company. 
You might not agree with Asterisk's licensing structure, but even RMS 
acknowledges that copyright law allows the GPL to be compatible with 
dual-licensing. It's not just barely legal, it's fully legal. Such 
multiple licensing is one well-recognized strategy in business models for 
successful Open Source developers.

It has been suggested that opponents of Open Source will continue to 
inject FUD concerning the potential/imagined liabilities of Open Source 
software. In light of the attacks SCO and others made on the ownership of 
Linux source code base, Digium exhibits canny diligence by accepting only 
disclaimed contributions of source into Asterisk. If ever the legitimacy 
of Asterisk code is questioned, Digium will be able to document with 
certainty that they have clear right to all of it.

Alex expressed disdain for Digium's commercial licensing revenue that does 
not benefit the contributors that have disclaimed their rights. These 
contributors disclaim their rights by choice of free will, knowing that 
there will be no monetary compensation beyond any one-time bounties 
offered by the community. However, the entire community -- including all 
contributors -- benefits from the Open Source availability of Asterisk in 
the first place.

rm
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  Roderick Montgomery   rod at thecomplex.com   <URL:http://thecomplex.com/>
the fool stands only to fall, but the wise trip on grace... [Sarah Masen]
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