[asterisk-users] Patent issues, what features we can't use?

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Tue, Aug 14, 2007 at 11:13:08PM -1000, Mark Coccimiglio wrote:
> Zeeshan,
> First off, if your fear of being sued is what stops you from doing 
> business then get out of the industry or get over it.  Its a risk we all 
> take everyday (not just in VoIP).  You build up a core of Insurance and 
> "Defensive Patents" to protect yourself.  

So-called "defensive" patents can help against competing companies, but
not against patent trolls: companies whose sole department is the legal
one.

> Risk is just part of doing 
> business.  Elements of the Asterisk that are "clearly" incompatible with 
> the Dual License model are not included in the regular distribution.  
> You "may" find them as add-on modules or in Trunk 

"Trunk" is the work-in-progress version. At some point in the future a
new release of Asterisk will be derived from it. Its license has no such
issues. E.g.: it includes no g729 coded or whatever.

> (If it supports a free development/education license) 

You seem to be confusing "free software" with some other meanings of the
word "freeware". Asterisk (out of the SVN or tarballs) is free software.
[1]

> but not as a part of the "regular distribution".


> Now that being said where does the g729 patent (and the like) fit in?  A 
> patent like g729 is actually VERY specific about what it does and how to 
> do it.  Sure its a "software patent" but there is little room in the 
> wording about what it accomplishes, by what means and the limitations of 
> the patent.  

If it's a "software patent", how come it applies in Europe?


[1] With minor excetions: the FPM sound files are with a somewhat
restrictive licene. But this is not related to patents.

-- 
               Tzafrir Cohen       
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