[Asterisk-Users] Prices of g729 codec

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On Friday 02 June 2006 11:39, Lee Howard wrote:
> >Don't cheat digium out of money..  pay the $10 per license.
> Yes, be a good colonist and don't dump any more tea into the harbor.

Oh please.  Brian's got the reasoning for paying for the license entirely 
wrong but at least his heart's in the right place.

The Intel g729 code is licensed for educational use ONLY.  Commercial use is 
forbidden without paying the patent holder.  $10 a port won't break the bank 
of any business with a shred of a hope of a chance of surviving, and you stay 
legitimate.

Try buying a legit g729 license from the patent holder if you're a home user 
or small business wanting to transcode g729.  They only want to license 
hundreds of instances at a time, if not thousands.  Digium negotiated a 
pretty damn good license fee so that they could offer the codec and sell it 
in onesie-twosie quantities to little guys like us at an affordable price. 

It's $10 per simultaneous transcode, Lee.  It's not per month or even 
per-year.  It's a one time fee.

If you're a major carrier, chances are you aren't transcoding g729 on too many 
channels on PCs anyway, instead relying on the already-paid-for, 
already-legit g729 codecs on your termination equipment (Cisco, Lucent, 
etc.).  In that case, spending $100 or even $1000 on g729 licenses (scaled 
for your needs of course) is a paltry sum compared to the equipment you have 
in place already to run the rest of the VOIP end of the business.

"be a good colonist" indeed.  You've got your head so far up your arse you've 
entered a new and entirely intestinally-based existence.

-A.