[asterisk-users] Asterisk/GPL and G.729 licensing

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Tue, Jul 25, 2006 at 03:32:20PM +1000, Nick Hoffman wrote:
> Hi guys. I just stumbled upon 
> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk+G.729+Licensing and 
> read the section titled "Warning". I'm a bit confused now. Are you 
> violating the GPL (or any other license) if you sell a computer with 
> Asterisk and a G.729 license installed?

Dislcaimer: IANALATINALA

Asterisk can be used under three different licenses:

1. non-free: if you py Digium. Not relevant here.

2. The GNU GPL. The problem is that the GPL has a conflict with 
openh323, openssl (at least according to some people) and to any code 
whose redistribution is prohibited due to patentns (e.g: g723.1/g729 
codecs)

3. Modified GPL. The GNU GPL with some small exceptions. Those allow 
linking with openssl, openh323 and with patented code. 

So as long as you actually use (3) and not (2) and don't violate the
terms of the licenses for the code you actually want to redistribute
(e.g: read caefully the license of the 'register' utility) you should
probably be clear.

Some modules have a license that is only GPL (() and not (3)). Those
include the mysql module from addons (right?) and probably quite a few
third-party modules. You are not allowed to use both such a module and
the g729 codec on the same Asterisk system because it would violate
either the terms of (2) (the g729 module adds restrictions that conflict
with the GPL) or with the GPL terms of thoe modules (the modified GPL
adds restrictions that conflict with the original GPL license).

-- 
Tzafrir Cohen         sip:tzafrir at local.xorcom.com
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