[asterisk-users] USA BRI -- any hope at all?

[Michael Higgins]

On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:55:02 -0500
Steve Totaro <stotaro at totarotechnologies.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 4:07 PM, Tzafrir Cohen
> <tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 03:45:34PM -0500, Steve Totaro wrote:
> >
> >> Get a hold of Marcin Pyco (Former Digium Employee and extrememly
> >> smart guy.
> >>
> >> He has code/patches for zaptel to US BRIs work that include SPID
> >> as a variable in zap confs.
> >
> > Could you please expand on that point?
> >
> > Why should such patches remain secret?
> >
> > And are those patches really necessary now that chan_dahdi knows
> > that there is such a thing called BRI?
> >
[8<]
> 
> BRISTUFF never worked properly with US BRI.  

[8<]

> 
> From what I understand it Marcin's code works on all card's that
> BRIStuff would work on, but does not because US BRI is a bit different
> than other BRI around the world.
> 
> About keeping secrets, which he doesn't, he has said that he had these
> patches for a long time now.  At any rate, it is his code to whatever
> he wants.  If he wants to charge for it, do consulting, or keep it a
> secret, it is not your business nor do you have any say what he wants
> to do with "his" code.
> 
> I think you just want your hands on the code since you work for a
> competitor but I may be wrong....
> 

Oh, I'm laughing... 

Yes, Martin Pyco has already been in contact with me. What happened to open source community? Everyone who has these cards, IF THE PATCHES WORK, would benefit, no? 

But I'm not going to, not able to, invest, or risk, on one developer. Yes, he has said I can pay him... but that was his private email to me, not to the list. I haven't seen the old patches on the 'net for all to peruse (as I haven't really looked for them either).

My reply, which *is* my business, however, I'll share here redacted, as it were:

<quote>
[...]

I don't get this. You patched/borrowed/used bristuff code? Where is it? Is it any good, so it can it be ported to the current asterisk?

[...]

I don't understand. Either it works, or it doesn't. If you modified the code, where is it? Just because *you* abandoned it, doesn't mean it couldn't be maintained by someone else. Unless you don't get the GNU licensing thing...

[...]

Obviously, I'm trying to buy hardware which works with US '2B1Q' BRI. I don't buy software, except in those few cases where the chip is fixed already, like a win modem on a motherboard.

If I got a free laptop with your chip in it, I might be persuaded to throw a few (<100) bucks at the developers to be able to use it, but !@#$%^&*, man, you sell the card itself. You will sell more of them with better drivers (if the hardware is good to start, of course).

Basically, if you want to sell the card, you have to show me, and everyone, the code. I can't possibly commit to supporting your coding unless it is released GPL, so others can spot errors, find security flaws, etc.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your reply, but it seems like you wrote something you didn't release to the community. No wonder you didn't sell many cards... way too risky to rely on just you. Sorry.
</quoted>

Unbelievably (to me, anyway), he did reply, and, in fact, I did not misunderstand one bit. Standing his ground, stating, in rather large numbers, the "market value" of what I want to achieve, should I try without his code. IOW, implication is it will cost me *way* more to do it a different, available way, so...

Okay, fine. I don't insist that anyone do anything they don't want to do, believe me! This is why, in my OP to this list, I asked about tradition, are developers normally keeping modified code from the originators of the code? 

But, I don't know what the actual license for the code in question is called, or what it "allows", and finally, 'IANAL'. Just seems like, well, kinda crappy behaviour. Is this normal?

I mean, sure, don't do it for me for free, but damn, man, let's see what you did to make it work... let someone else use it, test it, improve it, next thing you know there's a market for your hardware, where currently, there isn't.

I mean, I'd take up a collection, or something, but still I'd be beta testing. '-)

. . .

Geez, I see that I'm replying to someone who appears to have some prior conversation with Mr Pyco as well.
http://archives.free.net.ph/message/20081013.223907.3370db07.da.html

Skribent: Steve Totaro
Dato: 2008-10-13 15:39 -700
Til: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Emne: Re: [asterisk-users] ISDN

... unless this is some fluke, or something. Some guy with your name sez he can do this out of the box, more or less:

"Whatever the rub, using BRIStuff, Zaptel 1.4.X and a Junghanns' card or
knock-off (and even Sangoma drivers), it will work with Verizon."

Verizon is totally an option for me. So... where *is* that how-to posted? '-)

I am still baffled. I don't personally care about "pissing matches". It's not my money, I'm in no great hurry, and as someone pointed out, I could just pay the telco to do it for me. I will probably get a multi-port analog and be fine... once I join the documentation project, I guess. '-)

But I do have a commitment to GNU/Linux and open source generally, so all I can say is... ugh. :(

Thanks to all for your help and discussion so far. Very illuminating. '-)

Cheers,

-- 
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 michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org