[Asterisk-Users] Prices of g729 codec

[trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Mon, 2006-06-05 at 10:00 -0400, Andrew Kohlsmith wrote:
> On Saturday 03 June 2006 04:05, Sahil Gupta wrote:
> > We recently had around 60-80 licenses become useless because Digium
> > refused to renew the keys on that.  That was a bit of money kissed
> > goodbye.
> 
> Ok, that's a great fairy tale.  Now tell us the true story.
> 

Well it may be it maybe not, I wouldnt call people liars without proof
however.  What I will do is state that I have written a tool that allows
you to port digium licenses to different boxes.  Lets say that digium is
closed (2am, weekend, whatever) and your box caught on fire or whatever.
You cant get them ported right then because digium is closed.  My tool
will let you convert that license file to something else.

I will be making this program available publicly this week pending a
final test to ensure that it doesnt itself cause your system to catch on
fire :)


> When you buy licenses from Digium, you register them and they are "branded" 
> with information from your machine (most likely MAC address of the NIC, but 
> I'm not 100% sure nor do I particularly care for the details.)
> 

And I am relying on that fact to thwart piracy with my tool.  If the
license file is shared and later discovered to be shared it will be easy
to track who leaked it and thus cause fewer if any people to leak it.
That and the fact that if people pay for the digium codec they are doing
it for the license not the codec itself since there are unlicensed ones
out there if they dont want the license.  The only reason to get the
digium codec is infact the license that accompanies it, so piracy on any
level should be rare if at all.


> If you upgrade hardware you may have to re-register them.  Digium allows you 
> to automatically re-register once without phone calls or any explanation.  
> After that, you cannot re-register without calling Digium and making a case 
> for it.  This is a restriction placed on them by the patent holders of the 
> g.729 codec.
> 
not really, that is conjecture.  Having entered into a g729 license
myself I can attest that changing the license like that isnt a
requirement of my contract.  


> So the TRUE story is that you had 60-80 licenses, registered, changed your 
> hardware, re-registered, changed your hardware AGAIN and for one reason or 
> another failed to convince Digium that it was a legitimate change to warrant 
> a re-registration.
> 
That may be, which goes with what he said that you said was a faery
tale.  So which is it, faery tale or fact?  You seem to be inconsistant.
And if he could have made a case that he needed it changed, wouldnt that
negate your argument that the patent holders wont let digium change it
more than once?  Is iut the patent holders (or their authorized agent
sipro.com as the case may be) or digium that has the discretion?


> I have personally called Digium and provided sufficient reasoning to grant me 
> a third registration.  
> 
> So honestly now, Sahil, what did you guys do that was so different?  It 
> *really* pisses me off when people like you give a half-assed, half-baked 
> "digium sucks" post.  If you've got an honest beef with Digium, then sure, 
> lay it all out, but don't present half the fucking story and then bitch about 
> how the big bad Digium beat you up and stole your lunch money.
> 
> ... just like my kids...  "Waaaah, Joshua hit me!"  "Yeah but you've been 
> bugging the shit out of him for the last 5 minutes and he asked you nicely to 
> stop twice.  I'd have hit you too, Katie."

I cant speak for you hitting your kids when they bother you for 5
minutes, however if it bothers you that people post 'I had a problem
with digium' email and your explanation contradicts itself, even your
claim that someone is being less than honest when you yourself state
later that they were being honest seems dubious at best.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast IE +44 28 9099 6461    DE +49 801 777 555 3402
Utrecht NL +31 306 553058      US WA +1 360 207 0479
US NY +1 516 687 5200          FreeWorldDialup: 635378
http://www.trxtel.com we pay you to terminate calls with us!
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