[Asterisk-Users] RE: Business Edition

[Kevin Walsh]

Adam Goryachev [mailinglists at websitemanagers.com.au] wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-07-22 at 04:15 +0100, Kevin Walsh wrote:
> > It has been flippantly said, a number of times, that "if you don't
> > like the situation then you can fork the project."  A major fork seems
> > (to me) to be pointless for one main reason (and a couple of lesser
> > reasons): 
> > 
> > As I see it, anyone working on an Asterisk fork who had previously
> > signed the dangerous "disclaimer" (the perpetual one) could find their
> > changes to the fork rolled back into the Asterisk Binary Edition
> > without any further permission being required.
> > 
> > The perpetual agreement grants "the owner" a "non-cancellable right
> > to use changes and/or enhancements" made to the Asterisk codebase "as
> > [the] owner sees fit."  As any Asterisk fork would, of course, be based
> 
> IANAL, but I assume you also have the right to revoke the agreement as
> relating to future patches. ie, it is non-cancellable in that I can't
> contribute something today, and next week change my mind. I am sure I
> can sign the agreement, contribute enhancements, cancel my agreement,
> and no longer contribute enhancements.
> 
That is not the case.  The agreement makes it clear that 1(a) the
signer "does hereby grant, a non-exclusive, royalty-free and
non-cancellable right to use changes and/or enhancements made to the
programs." and 1(b) "this Agreement applies to all past and future
contributions of Contributer (sic)."

There is no provision to cancel, and furthermore, the signer
specifically agrees to this arrangement by signing.

> >
> > For this reason, I believe that if a fork were
> > ever necessary, it would struggle to beat a distinct path away from
> > the Asterisk Binary Edition
> >
> Correct, until the point where there is MORE features being added to the
> forked version of asterisk than the digium version of asterisk.
>
That can't happen, because the ABE could, and probably would, absorb
all of the advances in the fork, while forging ahead with the
original.

> The *average* feeling of the community is that they are happy with
> the status quo.
>
The status quo has been disrupted with the unveiling of the Asterisk
Binary Edition.

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