[Asterisk-Users] SysMaster and GPL Violation

[Joe Greco]

> Joe, I think everyone appreciates the fact that you don't like the way 
> Digium handles the licensing and disclaimers.
> [...] 
> IMO we are perched at the very beginning of the revolution that Asterisk 
> will bring to telephony.  I don't mind watching the arguments made about 
> the minutiae of the GPL; I *really* mind seeing Mark's and Digium's 
> motives impugned.

[snipped down to the heart of it all]

It's not about their motives.  I have no problem seeing Digium make money
off Asterisk.  Heck, we operate a source repository here that a number of 
people probably make money off of (and since it's under a BSD-like license,
no disclaimers are necessary or requested).

What bothers me is that the disclosure of Digium's intent requires a fair
amount of reading in between the lines.  It's a lot less underhanded to
take that disclaimer text and add on:

"Digium reseves the right to release this code under a non-GPL closed
source license.  Do not agree to this disclaimer unless you approve of
this and understand that you are granting them the right to do this."

than it is to have everyone going on and on about "Oh, yeah, this is a GPL
project" without disclosing that in fact there is a scheme to multiply
license the resulting code, by making contributors sign away their rights
(and therefore the protections that would otherwise exist for that code
under the GPL).

I'm all for revolutions in telephony, Lord knows the ILEC's need a kick
in the can.  I'm also all for free software, and I'm happy to see that
Digium has GPL'd Asterisk, but I also believe that there needs to be full
disclosure of the particulars, because what is happening is at conflict
with some of the ideologies behind the GPL.

It's very interesting to see this very list which was so GPL-advocate a
month or two ago turn tail in Digium's defense.  :-)

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
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With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.