[Asterisk-Users] G.729 licensing - Hardware Devices rather than software

[Kristian Kielhofner]

trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-07-19 at 00:35 +0000, Obelix wrote:
> 
>>I have been reading a number of the past threads about G.729 licensing., about
>>how the registration keys are linked to the network configurations, limited
>>number of registrations etc, etc.
>>
>>Is there no reason why the decoding can't be done in with some Asterisk
>>compatible hardware, so that once the adapter is bought, all licensing issues
>>go away.
>>
>>In that way the owner could fiddle with the installation to his hearts content,
>>without having to bother about reregistering licenses after some changes.
>>
>>It would save both Digium and end users a lot of hassle.
> 
> 
> They need to ensure that the license is not used by others.  Digium has
> to pay the patent owner a fee for the codec.  The way that it is
> licensed by the patent owner is per concurrent use as well.  In linux
> gethostid() returns the IP address, not all systems work this way, some
> use a serial number off an eeprom (sparcs for example).  Without locking
> it to something hardware based (cpu serial or something which isnt
> guaranteed to be accurate since its trivial to make a sysctl to report
> whatever you want ...) that woud be a feat. 
> 
> Additionally if you lock it to a peice of hardware you would not be able
> to play with the hardware, only the network.
> 
> gethostid() is a silly way to lock hardware in my opinion anyway since
> it returns the IP address and many people now use NAT (by need or desire
> such as perception of increased security).  NAT allows the system to sit
> behind the real IP and dish out seats and its possible (although it
> would take an illegal act on all concerned parties) to use the software
> without actually paying for it (someone somewhere would have to pay for
> it, but ...)

	While I do appreciate the lesson in system calls, what does any of this 
have to do with the g729 codec?  :) Digium's G729 codec (and 
registration program) binds your license key to the MAC addresses of the 
ethernet adapters in the system.  Even then you can register to three 
different sets of MAC addresses before you have to contact Digium to 
have your key reset.  What do IP addresses have to do with anything?

> Additionally with LD_PRELOAD or programs like systrace (depending on how
> its done in the code) you can force gethostid() to return whatever
> arbitrary data you wanted on a per invocation basis.  One program can
> get the hostid as X while another on the same system at the same time
> gets it as Y.  
> 
> But right now this is the best of everything because it does not force
> you to buy additional hardware you may not have and do not want.  And
> unless the communication path to the device could be controlled or a
> crypto system was implemented (and ITAR may be a problem, although I
> think they have exceptions for devices like this) the hardware could be
> emulated via software and it would totally defeat the licensing system
> with about the same degree of ease.  All it would do is add cost to the
> end user, something I am sure most people do not want.
> 
> In theory asterisk could bridge the licensed codec to an external
> hardware device that would have the number of seats in it but this would
> add latency and degrade performance, something I am very certain people
> do not want.
> 
> What exists is the best of all worlds given the world we live in.
> Patents do exist in some places and as such the patent holder has the
> right under those laws to charge if they desire.  In this case they do
> desire, and so digium is forced to pay.  Being responsible business
> people they pass that charge on to the end users as it would be foolish
> for them to asorb the cost so that everyone else does not have to pay.

	Wow.  Anyways...

	I know there is some PCI hardware similar to the te410p that can do 
four T1/E1 spans and g729 transcoding onboard, but I don't think that it 
can be utilized for codec transcoding only.  I'm really frustrated that 
I can't remember the name or manufacturer!  A little help here, anyone :)?


-- 
Kristian Kielhofner