[asterisk-biz] [asterisk-users] ISPBX Announces COGOBLUE Interface and PBX Appliances

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Fri, 2008-04-04 at 05:23 -0500, Kevin P. Fleming wrote:
> Matt Signorello wrote:
> 
> > We do not redistribute the Asterisk source ourselves and simply refer
> > people to Digium if anyone wishes to download it.
> 
> Please re-read the GPLv2 carefully. If you distributing Asterisk for
> commercial purposes, you are not allowed to just 'pass through' the
> offer for source code from your source of the code, you must instead
> offer the source code yourself directly to anyone who receives the
> binaries from you.
> 

Since you didnt mention the specific section, its GPL-2 Sec 3.c.  The
only place that commercial/noncommercial distribution is differentiated
is with this particular clause.  Its special that way.

Matt, you appear to be stuck with section 3.a (distro at the same time,
ie on the hard disk or whatever) or section 3.b (written offer valid for
3 years for "a charge no more than your cost of physically performing
source distribution".


Section 3.b however lets you hire your brother (or whomever -
"outsourced") for $5,000,000 per CD ensuring that no one wants to get a
copy from you.  Your cost includes postage and packaging, media itself,
etc.  The section isnt specific enough to forbid outsourcing at insane
prices, you wouldnt be able to reasonably claim that your cost was that
high without outsourcing, or maybe you could after all employee costs
are part of the cost of physically performing source distribution, but
generally it would be easier to just hire your brother who will hire you
back for consulting work :)



-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
   The GPL is a software license not a religion