[asterisk-dev] Idea for GSoC: Support of PRACK in Asterisk

[Kevin P. Fleming]

John Todd wrote:

> Would incorporation of download/install of Sofia into the "make"  
> process be unwieldy?  I could see that potentially as a "make  
> menuselect" option that is selected by the administrator at the time  
> of compile.  Or as suggested, something similar to the get_ilbc script.

I'm going to put on my "I am not a lawyer" hat for a moment, so please
forgive me...

There are really two core issues here: first, that 'inclusion' of the
LGPL code into a combined work (at the source code level) carries some
implications. With Asterisk OSS already being licensed under the GPLv2,
these implications are pretty much moot, but for commercially licensed
Asterisk, they are of concern.

The second is that even distribution of a binary containing the LGPL
code has implications; again, for OSS Asterisk these are pretty much
moot (but not completely), but for commercially licensed Asterisk, they
are a serious (and insurmountable) concern.

Essentially, to take full advantage of the LGPL's provisions, the
LGPL-licensed work must be kept as separate as possible from the work
under a different license, and only connected at runtime via linking
mechanisms.

Before someone else posts it, yes, these concerns are being driven
primarily by commercially licensed usage of Asterisk; if core
functionality in Asterisk required use of an LGPL library (especially
one that is not readily available as, or designed to be, a shared
library) that could not be substituted one-for-one with a non-LGPL
library, then our commercial licensees would have a problem.

-- 
Kevin P. Fleming
Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA
skype: kpfleming | jabber: kpfleming at digium.com
Check us out at www.digium.com & www.asterisk.org