[asterisk-users] Re: Asterisk Faxing Support

[Tzafrir Cohen]

I'm not here to flame anybody. Please see the replies in-line.

Try to actually read them.

On Sat, Feb 10, 2007 at 01:19:30PM -0500, Andrew Joakimsen wrote:
> On 2/10/07, Tzafrir Cohen <tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com> wrote:
> 
> >No. RedHat publish the full sources (as easily-rebuildable source
> >packages) to all the packages in RHEL. This is why CentOS is possible.
> >
> >Digium may just as well *bundle* code of that sort in Asterisk (e.g: as
> >a separate AGI script, or whatever). The pproblem is that linking such a
> >code into Asterisk makes it (for the common interpertation of the
> >copyrights laws) a part of Asterisk.
> >
> >So Digium cannot use exactly the same strategy as RedHat if it wants to
> >allow people to link propietary modules with Asterisk. And this is the
> >major difference.
>
> What is the difference between using my proprietary asterisk-add on
> than to using my proprietary email client (Microsoft Outlook) with my
> GPL IMAP servers? 

Depends what type of asterisk-addon. If it only communicates with
Asterisk through AGI, the manager interface and/or changing the
configuration (files/realtime), then it is basically the same as using a
proprietary mail client with a free mail server.

OTOH, if the addon is an Asterisk application, function or whatever
asterisk module, it actually uses code from Asterisk when it is loaded.
Therefore it is considered as a "art" that is "based on" the code of 
Asterisk. This funny term "art" is used because this is covered by the
copyrights laws. I can give you a complete lecture here on the meaning
of this, but a quick search will probably get you some good answers as
well.

I personally don't like proprietary software, and think it is basically
a source of problems in the long run, but if you follow my posts you'll
see that I don't try to force this opinion on others. 

> You guys need to drop your BS elitist point of view,
> It isn't your software,  its talking to your software like any other
> software does, the license of that software has nothing to do with it.

As I pointed out in another post, I tried to explain how things are, not
to give an advice to Digium. I know Digium has some smart people of its
own :-) .

-- 
               Tzafrir Cohen       
icq#16849755                    jabber:tzafrir at jabber.org
+972-50-7952406           mailto:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com       
http://www.xorcom.com  iax:guest at local.xorcom.com/tzafrir