[Asterisk-Dev] video in iax2 spec

[Steve Kann]

Derek Smithies wrote:

>On Fri, 29 Apr 2005, Steve Kann wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Ahh the vagaries of licensing. I'd need to find out if it's possible for 
>>the authors to make exceptions for MPL-licensed code, or just for 
>>pwlib-derived capture..
>>    
>>
>
>================================
>licensing is a can of worms I do not follow.
>
>* is dual licence,  GPL+modifications/commercial_use
>
>The modifications in the GPL like part of * license are you can link * 
>with openh323/pwlib, and you can link * with ssl libs.
>
>Now, GPL code is GPL, which can only be linked with GPL code.
>
>My view, and I would appreciate some insight here,
> Can pure GPL code be linked with GPLM (GPL + modifications)   ?
>
>I think not.
>
>Steve,
> if you put the * modifcations in the license for your code, you could 
>link (legally) with openh323/pwlib.
>  
>

iaxclient is not derived from asterisk, so asterisk's license has 
nothing to do with it. iaxclient is derived from several sources, one of 
which is libiax2 from digium, which is licensed under the LGPL.

So, the only problem comes from _applications_ which use iaxclient, 
which are themselves GPL. This includes several of the softphone 
programs which are out there, including iaxComm, and perhaps some of the 
others whose authors chose to license as GPL. _They_ could use the same 
exceptions to the GPL for their applications, but it would require 
agreement amongst all the contributors. (However, I would imagine that 
iaxComm may be the only one with multiple contributors, and the list is 
relatively manageable).



>>Also, I've got a question for you: Are you finding that most modern 
>>windows video devices are still available for use with VFW? I've read in 
>>some places that it seems that newer capture devices are supporting 
>>DirectShow only?
>>    
>>
>
>Don't know.
>
>My question:
>  is debate about asterisk like code and windows pointless? - * does not 
>compile natively under windws (no MFC project files etc)
>  
>
iaxclient != asterisk.

>Using mingw and iax code seems a bit of a hack to me, and not particularly
>acceptable. What do you mean, I have to install zillions of libraries to
>get my windows box to run a small voip program like iaxcomm ? I hate
>installing libraries/functions on my windows box unless there is a very
>good reason.
>  
>

You don't need to install anything in order to run programs compiled 
with MinGW, including iaxcomm, or most any iaxclient-derived softphone 
(these include basically every IAX-compatible softphone out there except 
for Firefly, at least that I've seen).

You _do_ need to get the required build environment for building on 
Windows, though, but I think that we've got it worked out now, so you 
can just get cygwin, and not need to get cygwin, Mingw, _and_ edit 
"/etc/profile" to make it work.

People always complain about the thing not compiling under the Microsoft 
toolchain, but nobody seems to provide clean patches to make it work. 
I'm not going to do double work maintaining the build environment 
separately for each platform -- I'm very happy with a single "Makefile" 
working everywhere (I might even use autotools, if/when the Makefile 
gets too hairy).

-SteveK