[Asterisk-Dev] GPL Violation http://www.asteriskwin32.com/

[Mark Spencer]

Several people have asked me to comment on this, and although I have been 
reluctant to do so, I will definitely make a few brief statements:

1) This project is not a commercial licensee of Digium.

2) The project appears to incorporate sections of code which would not be 
covered by Digium's commercial license (e.g. spandsp) even if they had 
commercially licensed Asterisk.

3) The GPL does not permit anyone to distribute binary-only for any reason 
whatsoever.  When you distribute the product at all, you MUST distribute 
it under the terms of the GPL which clearly is not the case here.  Even if 
the patches are not in a good form, they MUST still be released when the 
code is distributed and there is absolutely no permissible way in which 
that does not occur.  Section 4 of the GPL addresses this directly:

  " 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
  except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
  otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
  void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
  However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
  this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
  parties remain in full compliance."

4) How much work it took to port to windows is entirely irrelevant and 
bears no relevancy with respect to licensing whatsoever.  Even so, any 
comments to the contrary are clearly disrespectful to the developers who 
have worked so hard to make Asterisk happen.

5) Digium is aware of the problem and is currently exploring its options 
with respect to the copyright violation.

6) Those who have executed the "long form" disclaimer do retain copyright 
to their code and can pursue action directly against GPL violators who 
have not otherwise licensed the combined work from Digium.

7) Our director responsible for licensing here at Digium is Jim Webster 
(jwebster at digium.com). I encourage any of you with GPL violations (or 
possible GPL violations), questions about licensing, etc. to e-mail him 
directly!

8) I personally and professionally much appreciate the vigilance of the 
Asterisk community in this area and encourage you all to keep your eyes 
out for this!

Mark