[Asterisk-Users] Re: Re: Digium Website Update: Asterisk Business Edition

[trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com]

Curious as to why there is any problem in general, I went to google and
started hunting the license information.  I found a couple of resources
they all say basically the same thing, all are on digiums site.

I cant understand why there is any sort of problem.  There are 2
licenses they sell, one is GPL and free.  This is what most people use.
For people who want to be able to sell asterisk or incorporate it into
their existing product line they can buy a commercial license that
removes the parasitic nature of the GPL (ie any code you create will be
assimilated into the GPL as well).

The GPL does not prohibit forking, so long as the forked code is GPLed.
Course then you have to name it something else, maybe instead of * you
use the other telephone special key # and name it hash to go with
whatever people that are complaining about this are smoking.


http://www.digium.com/downloads/licensing.pdf (basically the same but
not as formal as the next link).

http://www.digium.com/handbook-draft.pdf
1.3 Licensing
Asterisk is generally distributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License, or GPL. This license permits you to freely distribute
Asterisk in source and binary forms, with or without modifications,
provided that when it is distributed to anyone at all, it is distributed
with source code (including any changes you make) and without any
further restrictions on their ability to use or distribute the code. For
more information, refer to the GNU General Public License, included
as an appendix.

The GPL does not extend to the hardware or software that Asterisk
talks to. For example, if you are using a SIP soft phone as a client for
Asterisk, it is not a requirement that that program also be distributed
under GPL. Additionally, AGI applications, which are simply
launched by Asterisk and communicate

For those applications in which the GNU GPL is not appropriate
(because of some sort of proprietary linkage, for example), Digium is
the solely capable of licensing Asterisk outside of the terms of the
GPL at their discression. For more information on licensing Asterisk
outside of GPL, contact sales at digium.com.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
UK +44 870 340 4605   Germany +49 801 777 555 3402
US +1 360 207 0479 or +1 516 687 5200
FreeWorldDialup: 635378
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