[Asterisk-Dev] chan_sccp move from lambda-solutions.de to SF.NET

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Jeremy McNamara wrote:
> James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> 
>> GPL seems to live in a gray area.
>>
>> Take the example of asterisk, which is supposed to be GPL.
>> Digium can release it under a proprietory license. They might do some 
>> special enharnancement to the "proprietary" version of asterisk, e.g. 
>> G.729. 
> 
> 
> There is no "proprietary" version of Asterisk.   If you want G.729 you 
> have to pay Digium (and Digium pays the patent holders) for the 
> non-gpl'd code that codec_g729b.so utilizes. Also, if Asterisk's 
> copyright is not clean, Asterisk could not link to Open H.323 or 
> OpenSSL, legally because they are non-gpl licensed.
> 
> 
> 
> Jeremy McNamara
> 
> 

Doesn't what you say here break the GPL?

Extract from GPL below:
  Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.


James

P.S. Spell check activated this time. :-)