Daryll Strauss wrote:
I'm not comfortable with Digiums policy of having to sign over my code to them. Although I've seen no signs of malice on their part, it just doesn't sit right with me. I write code for a living, and if companies are involved I expect to be paid for it. I can chose to release code under BSD (and therefore get no say in how it is used) or I can release it under the GPL (and make sure everyone shares it). Digium is essentially asking me to write code and donate it to them without getting paid, and if they like it they'll keep a copy and release a copy under the GPL. Individuals donating to companies doesn't make a lot of sense to me, so I won't do that. That means I can choose to not distribute my code, or make it available under the GPL and make other people treat it as a patch to Digium's tree. One of benefits of open source is that the contributors have a say in this matter. If contributors really don't like it, there's no reason they couldn't start a "libre asterisk" project on SourceForge. The downside of that the members of the libre project would have to merge the Digium code at regular intervals. It takes some effort. It also requires getting enough of a community to make it worthwhile. If enough people contribute to the libre project instead of directly to Digium, then Digium may find it's not worth the effort of continuing their contribution policy, just like what happened with XFree86. It is available as an option, for those people who think it is enough of an issue and want to do the work involved.
As I have been reading this thread one "missing angle" that perhaps should be addressed by those who are bothered by the current licensing scheme is this: what alternative means exist out there for Digium to try to ensure their corporate existence?
We can all see that in the backroom down in Huntsville there is a pretty fair-sized phalanx of people whose time is spent on Asterisk, not Digium's other business. Those people need to eat, and Digium needs to make a profit in order to insure that Asterisk isn't simply just maintained, but can grow and respond to what we all have to concede is a very rapidly-changing technological environment.
I haven't been around since Day One, but was around at the point that the "market" hadn't yet decided between Asterisk, VOCAL, Voxilla, etc., and the Asterisk project was way, way smaller than it is right now.
Back then, Digium was a much smaller company. Mark and Greg (and I'm sure others who I didn't have as much contact with) used to pretty publicly explain their rationale for the exact model Mark had chosen, and one worry that was expressed more than once was, "Beyond our simple continuation in existence as a business, what would happen to Asterisk if we *don't* make it, and this model doesn't generate enough revenue for us to continue to fund its development?"
One thing I see lacking in this thread is a discussion of alternatives that would meet the relatively small list of desiderata: keep Asterisk open and free, make enough money to pay for the ongoing cost of Asterisk development, and provide enough return that it would make sense for Digium to exist as a commercial enterprise.
How else could it be done? B. _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
