[Asterisk-Users] SysMaster and GPL Violation

[Brian Capouch]

Michael Giagnocavo wrote:
> 
> Again, let Stallman call out nasal demons against whoever he wants.
> Meanwhile, I think Digium should be able to do whatever they want with code
> they've made, or code disclaimed to them.
> 
> 

Joe, I think everyone appreciates the fact that you don't like the way 
Digium handles the licensing and disclaimers.

I would like to see you say out loud, just once, that those of us who 
know all of that and disclaim our work to Digium are not necessarily 
idiotic boobs who don't know what we're doing.

Digium took a huge risk in making their primary intellectual property 
Open Source.  They didn't have to; this revolutionary system may or may 
not have taken off like it has, had it been proprietary.  But at the 
very least there is a reasonable chance that it would have succeeded as 
such and made them a lot of money.

It tires me to read your tirades and consider that you really don't 
think the rest of us are smart enough to catch Digium's "trick" that 
bothers you so badly.

Things are set up the way they are, as I understand it, so that first, 
Mark gets the final say, totally, as to what is "true Asterisk" and what 
is not.  Second, it allows them the freedom to do side things with 
Asterisk--yes, with my code and your code and everyone else's code 
too--in order to make a living, and validate the thought that doing 
Asterisk as Open Source could be done in a way that Digium could still 
make some money on it.

IMO we are perched at the very beginning of the revolution that Asterisk 
will bring to telephony.  I don't mind watching the arguments made about 
the minutiae of the GPL; I *really* mind seeing Mark's and Digium's 
motives impugned.

B.