[Asterisk-Dev] G.729 for Asterisk: new version released

[Craig Southeren]

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 19:44:36 -0500
Jeremy McNamara <jj at nufone.net> wrote:

..deleted

> There is no such thing, Voiceage owns all rights to the process the ITU 
> calls G.729, there is no such thing as 'Free as in beer G.729'.

This statement could be misinterpreted by some people

VoiceAge has acquired to right to offer an indemnified implementation of
G.729, and so I guess this could be described as "... owns all rights to
the process the ITU calls G.729". But this is not an exclusive license -
VoiceAge does not own ALL rights to G.729, but is merely one of many
G.729 licensees that can use the technology in commercial applications,
or can offer sub-licenses to others.

..deleted

> Until Voiceage signs off on your so-called 'free as in beer G.729', it 
> is illegal and could possibly effect Digium's relationship with Voiceage.

The first clause of this sentence is incorrect.

VoiceAge has no need or right to sign-off on anything except the use of
it's own specific implementation of G.729, and that is not enforcement
of a patent, but a far more pedestrian enforcement of copyright. No-one
needs anything from VoiceAge to use non-VoiceAge G.729 code, and as long
as it is used only for research, they are not even in violation of
patent law even if they are in a jurisdiction where the patents apply.

The second clause could be true, if the license agreement between Digium
and VoiceAge prohibits Digium from promoting the use of codec implementations
other than VoiceAge. I doubt this would be true, but I'm sure the smart
guys at Digium will ensure they stay legal.

IANAL, so usual disclaimers apply.

   Craig

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