[Asterisk-Dev] gnu-tls

[Derek Smithies]

Hi,

"Everyone" else has written, now it is my turn.
On Wed, 6 Jul 2005, Mikael Magnusson wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 01:23:27PM -0500, Steven wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-07-06 at 18:35 +0100, Andrew McDonald wrote:
> > > On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 01:55:52AM -0500, Steven wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 2005-07-06 at 09:21 +0300, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:


It is quite common in open source projects to read the header at the top 
of a file, and see that it is one particular license. And you look 
further, and discover the Readme specifies a different license. Even 
asterisk does this:
look at chan_iax2.c
 * This program is free software, distributed under the terms of
 * the GNU General Public License

then check the README file
* LICENSING
  Asterisk is distributed under GNU General Public License and is also
available under alternative licenses negotiated directly with Digium, Inc.
If you obtained Asterisk under the GPL, then the GPL applies to all
loadable modules used on your system as well, except as defined below.

sigh - I find this disturbing, it is not totally clear and consistant  
what the license of these projects is. 
Thus, it is no surprise there was confusion over the license of gnu-tls
====================================

Even assuming the license of the parts of gnu-tls that we want are LGPL, 
there are 2 issues I would mention.

   The wording of the LGPL has been described as "Tricky" and the meaning 
   is definately up for debate. If us computer experts argue the 
   meaning, what will a court decide ?

  What will asterisk gain by switching to gnu-tls ? Are there verifiable 
  flaws in the current openssl codebase ? If there are no verifiable 
  flaws, we would swap one working system for another working system. With 
  no gain in overall performance. A waste of effort in my view.

Derek.
   
-- 
Derek Smithies Ph.D.                         
IndraNet Technologies Ltd.                
Email: derek at indranet.co.nz         
ph +64 3 365 6485                          
Web: http://www.indranet-technologies.com/