[Asterisk-biz] Asterisk Ffork - OpenPBX.org

Jean-Michel Hiver jhiver at ykoz.net
Sat Oct 8 15:05:56 MST 2005


alex at pilosoft.com a écrit :

>On Sun, 9 Oct 2005, Jean-Michel Hiver wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I don't see how making it easier for people to do something that they
>>are legally allowed to do anyway can be considered illegal. Not anymore
>>than make, automake, twig, portage, or other tools that are used for
>>linking.
>>    
>>
>Unfortunately courts, in US, may take a dim view of that. (Please see all
>the p2p software lawsuits - they all have been accused, and found liable,
>of contributory copyright infringement). When the "most frequently used"  
>purpose of a piece of software is to enable copyright infringement, the 
>distributor of such software may be found liable.
>  
>
Yes but there is /no copyright infringement/ performed by linking 
asterisk to a piece of GPL software (Asterisk) to a piece of MPL 
software (Open H323)!



>That is all fairly grey area. As in, you may wish it wasn't the case, and 
>P2P software remained legal to distribute, but it isn't. Whether this can 
>be applied to such scripts as you described is questionable. 
>  
>
I think comparison with P2P is largely out of scope. See above.


>Why not to stop trying to find ways around GPL, and instead, write 
>something useful that would respect the rights of Digium and other 
>contributors?
>  
>
I don't think it's "finding ways around the GPL" at all. The GPL is 
/remarkably clear/ about what you can and cannot do and I think people 
should stick to that rather than interpret it the way they see fit. The 
most laughable example was MySQL A.B. "own interpretation of the GPL" 
where by "if your product needs mysql then it's linked to MySQL and you 
need a license".

Using such a popular licensing model and then saying "oh no no, you 
can't do that, not fair" just doesn't cut it. As long as you respect the 
terms of the licenses of the software you use / link / etc, you /are/ 
respecting the rights of Digium and other contributors.

I, as a user, am perfectly legit when I link Asterisk and Open H323. I 
don't think anybody will disagree with that. Then how can distributing a 
build shell script which serves that *completely legal* purpose be 
deemed illegal? Just because it pisses a few off? Come on...

Cheers,
Jean-Michel.




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