[asterisk-users] G.729 pre-compiled binaries and Asterisk 1.2.x.

[Steve Totaro]

On Jan 14, 2008 6:54 PM, Andrew Joakimsen <joakimsen at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Jan 14, 2008 5:51 PM, Steve Totaro <stotaro at totarotechnologies.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Either that or pay for the legal licensing of G729 and get support
> through
> > the appropriate channels.  Using the code for anything other than
> learning
> > purposes is illegal, not to mention that licensing is quite inexpensive.
> >
>
> Using the code period in a country which recognizes software patents
> is an infringement of the patentholder rights. It is not illegal
> anywhere but it does open you up to a great deal of legal liability.
> It does not matter if its in production use or not it is still
> infringement on the patent. Of course unless you have a large
> operation, say the size of Vonage, noone's really going to care.. but
> why are you going to start small with that sort of thinking? You'll
> never get anywhere.
>

I would argue that it is illegal.  The main definition of illegal is
"1. *against
law: *contravening a specific law, especially a criminal law".
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/illegal.html

While it may not be against criminal law in the US it can be in France and
Austria, in the US it is certainly "against a specific law".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_law#Law

Anyways, buying the license is the right thing to do unless you live where
software patent laws are not applicable.



>
> I wonder how many Chinese VoIP phones with G729 & G723 codecs have
> actually licensed the codec?
>
>
Probably none.


Thanks,
Steve Totaro
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