[asterisk-users] Cisco 7940G licensing with asterisk

[Matthew Rubenstein]

On Mon, 2007-10-01 at 11:44 -0500, Jason Parker wrote:
> Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
> > 	I just got SIP firmware images from Cisco for installation on
> 7970G.

> The way I understand it, that $15 doesn't actually even give you the
> right to
> use the SIP firmware.  It only gives you the right to "access" the
> download area.
> 
> The whole model is silly, at best.

	When I explained to each of the account reseller and the Cisco support
that I was going to use the SIP firmware to connect to Asterisk, not
CallManager, they each told me only that Cisco wouldn't support (trouble
tickets and other tech support time) the system using Asterisk, though
they did explicitly assure me (as does the documentation) that since the
SIP firmware is RFC-compliant, it would work with any RFC-compliant
server, not just CallManager (and so would work with SIP RFC-complaint
Asterisk).

	It's a giant game of CYA. I spent hours getting my $15 worth from the
SIP download. I'm surprised a bitter backlash hasn't made these SIP
images widely available for download around the Web. I think they might
have the serial# of the phone they're registered to when the account is
created, and of course the contract states otherwise, but I'd still
expect Cisco's deliberately difficult process hasn't created enemies
who'd do it anyway. Maybe there are just so few people using it this way
that none have materialized (yet). So I guess Cisco's PITA plan is
working.
-- 

(C) Matthew Rubenstein