[Asterisk-Users] RE: Business Edition

[Adam Goryachev]

On Thu, 2005-07-21 at 18:32 -0700, Lee Howard wrote:
> Kevin P. Fleming wrote:
> > You seem to be neglecting the amount of work that Digium puts into the 
> > Asterisk (and related) products on an ongoing basis that is given to 
> > the community at no charge.
> So at least we agree, then, on what the reasoning is.  Digium feels that 
> the community owes it to them.

I am not digium (nobody is, but I don't even work for them).
However, Digium doesn't believe that anybody 'owes' them anything. They
do *hope* that enough people will be grateful for receiving what they
worked hard on (asterisk source code) and some of them will have the
knowledge, some of those will also have the time, some of those will
also have the inclination, and some of those will also have the
generosity, to return improvements to the community. Now, from that
last, small, group, they also hope that some of them will sign a
disclaimer that basically says "Here, this will improve the product for
the community as a whole, and also help you to make a living".

So, feel free to be in any of those ever smaller groups. Or, you are
free to contribute GPL only code.

I am one of those people who doesn't really have the knowledge (or time)
to improve the asterisk code, however, I do contribute in other ways (on
the mailing list, etc). One method I chose to try to give to the
asterisk community was by providing a website which could 'collect' all
the GPL (and other licensed) patches, addons, and products, and
distribute them from a single point. Totally free of charge, with no
obligation on anybody's part. Of course, like all the people setting up
web forums that never got used, neither did my site. However, it is
there, and I still feel that it would be a useful addition to the
asterisk community to keep a lot of little patches/addons/etc in the one
spot. The wiki does this for information, and I hoped that my site would
do that for 'files'.

BTW, that website is http://www.websitemanagers.com.au/asterisk/
See www.deadcat.net for the source of the concept/etc which I also did
for another 'open source' community for the past 10 years.

> That's all that I was trying to say.
> 
> I don't agree with the benevolent tax, but I'm not the one to do 
> anything about it, myself.

It isn't a tax, since you have a choice to not pay it. Release your work
as GPL, or not at all.

Regards,
Adam