[Asterisk-Users] Re: Advice on OS Choice

[Mike Meyer]

On Fri, 2004-10-15 at 12:00, asterisk-users-request at lists.digium.com
wrote:
> ------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 16:56:21 +0000 (UTC)
> From: tony at softins.clara.co.uk (Tony Mountifield)
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Re: Advice on OS Choice
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Message-ID: <ckovfl$d6f$1 at softins.clara.co.uk>
> 
> In article <00a001c4b2cb$f2461180$020110ac at majestic.internal.office.cursor.biz>,
> Kevin Walsh <kevin at cursor.biz> wrote:
> > That's not up to them to decide.  Under the GPL, if you distribute
> > modified code then you must publish your enhancements for the benefit
> > of all.  The team responsible for the core code can decide whether the
> > contributed code is "appropriate for distribution."
> 
> That's not how I understand the GPL. My understanding is that the GPL
> gives me the freedom to take some GPLed code, modify it, and distribute
> the modified code to whomsoever I choose, for free or for a payment.  I
> must also make the source code freely available (on request, if I prefer)
> to anyone to whom I distribute binaries.
> 
> It does *not* compel me to distribute my version to everyone, but I also
> cannot prevent those people I give or sell it to from passing it on in
> binary and/or source form to anyone else if they choose to.
> 
> Cheers
> Tony
> -- 
> Tony Mountifield
> Work: tony at softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk
> Play: tony at mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org
> 
> 
I think you are both right. As I understand it, it all depends on what
is modified.

Say in the case of Asterisk you modified and improved the conferencing
capability, or voicemail, those modifications are made to existing
features and are expected to go back into the GPL source. Final
judgement is made by the GPL core distribution team to incorporate or
not.

Should you take and build a capability like Billing or another
conferencing capability, or call transfer to your liking on top of the
asterisk system. This in not required to be reviewed or submitted to
become open source. It is your own software capability to do with what
you want. Keep it proprietary or open source it. Your choice.

Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks,
Mike Meyer