[asterisk-users] is g729 codec free? or under license???

[Darryl Moore]

I'll explain.

The g.729 compression algorithm is not protected by copyright, though
specific instances may be. It is protected by a patent.

http://www.sipro.com/G-729.html

An open source version is available here:

http://asterisk.hosting.lv/

What stops you from using this, or even your own implementation isn't
copyright, but patent protection. It is the right to use the patented
technology that you are licensing, not the particular copyrighted coded
that implements it.

Here you will find the various G.729 patents which were all granted in
1996.

https://www.itu.int/ITU-T/recommendations/related_ps.aspx?id_prod=3334


I had thought these expired next year because I was thinking patents
were only 18 years. Turns out they are now 20 years, so they really do
not expire til some time in 2016. My bad.

So in countries that honour software patents, you need to have a license
until some time in 2016. In countries which do not, you are free to use
these open source codes now.

cheers.

On Fri, 2013-10-04 at 15:55 +0200, Olivier wrote:


>         
> Hmmmm, I'm not sure how g729 licence and software patents relate to
> each other.
> 
> 
>