[asterisk-biz] Response to KP Flemming...

[trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Thu, 2006-09-07 at 08:12 -0500, Kevin P. Fleming wrote:
> ----- Joe Shmoe <asterisk_truth at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > You say its not your code.  But yet, why would you
> > actually admit to one of your own leaking it.  Well
> > some research has been done one the code.. here's what
> > we found.. 
> 
> Please demonstrate where anyone from Digium has 'admitted to one of our own leaking it'. 
> 

I think that was infered, since it appears to be internal code.  If that
was not the case then it appears that someone broke in to digium servers
and obtained it.  Wonder if they got the credit card lists of people
that bought codecs and that is the next thing that will be posted.  

Since the code does appear to be very much identical to code that was
denied to exist in the first place, but links were posted that makes it
appear identical in many ways.  Kinda makes one wonder what the real
story is.



> > CVS had only LF endings.  The module code was
> > identical to:
> > http://svn.digium.com/view/asterisk/trunk/codecs/codec_g723_1.c?rev=5869&view=markup
> 
> That is all correct information. The codec_g723_1.c file is the same as the one that was in Asterisk 1.2. The codec_g729.c file is not the same as any version Digium has ever maintained.
> 
Hmm..  I thought that it was said that digium never had a g.723.1
implementation.  Now its confirmed that it is the same only after
someone dug it up.  Kinda makes someone wonder what the real story is
here.


> > Also if you want to know if Digium fully complies the
> > the GPL no.  They dont.  Digium has added a paragraph
> > of text under the symbol ASTERISK_GPL_KEY in
> > include/asterisk/module.h which every Asterisk module
> > must return when a function *key() is called by the
> > module loader.
> 
> Which of course is completely unrelated, has been hashed over multiple times on this list, and is a moot point anyway because any user of Asterisk is free to remove that code if they wish (unlike the Lexmark case that seems to the basis for this argument, where the owner of the device was NOT free to remove the restricition).
> 

While unrelated to the codecs, it is not unrelated to using Asterisk as
part of your business since, while you are free to remove the GPL
offending bits, that still requires that you give up part of your GPL
rights as opposed to having them.  I think that is part of the claim
here.

And with the loader.c specifically it requires that you not only remove
that on your server but everyone elses as well, for all of the GPL to be
honoured.  The GPL does not state that you have the right to remove code
on other peoples machines, so this legally invalid tactic to take away
GPL rights is questionable at best.

And 'any user of asterisk' is not a correct term.  Any developer that
happens to also use asterisk can do that, however simple users cannot.
Not everyone is a user.  The fact that this code was specifically
written to ensure that all GPL rights are not allowed by default is one
issue that I see, and if you are basing your business around asterisk
and want to rely on the GPL as part of your business model, when infact
its not really there makes it less than a moot point on a business list.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
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