Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
On Tuesday 08 November 2011, Yaroslav Panych wrote: Greetings I have found next paragraph in Licence file(source root) Digium, Inc. (formerly Linux Support Services) holds copyright and/or sufficient licenses to all components of the Asterisk package, and therefore can grant, at its sole discretion, the ability for companies, individuals, or organizations to create proprietary or Open Source (even if not GPL) modules which may be dynamically linked at runtime with the portions of Asterisk which fall under our copyright/license umbrella, or are distributed under more flexible licenses than GPL. What does it mean? Does it mean I can write non-GPL modules(BSD, MIT, etc)? Can I build my modules in common asterisk source tree(i.e. using LOCAL_MOD_SUBDIRS=my_mod_subdirs_list make ) or must use separate tree? If so, then since Asterisk core does not accepts anything except AST_MODULE_INFO(ASTERISK_GPL_KEY, ) what I should do here? If you write modules that need to be compiled against the Asterisk Source Code, then the resulting compiled binaries are by definition derivative works of Asterisk. The GPL already gives you permission to release those modules under the GPL. And Fair Dealing / Fair Use provisions of copyright law mean you need no explicit permission to make use of those modules yourself for their rightful purpose. You require a special, separate licence from Asterisk to distribute compiled binaries which are derived works of Asterisk under anything but the GPL. Other people can, also under Fair Dealing provisions, compile their own legitimately-acquired copy of your module Source Code against their own legitimately-acquired copy of the Asterisk Source Code; but what they end up with may well be unredistributable. What you *can't* do is distribute your modules *as pre-compiled binaries* under any licence beside the GPL -- if they are distributed under any other licence, they *must* be compiled on-site by the end user. You've been given the Asterisk Source Code freely, in the hope that it will be useful to you. The *least* you can do is share any improvements you may make with the rest of the world, on the same terms as the rest of the world shared Asterisk with you in the first place so you could make those improvements. Shorter version: Leeches not welcome. -- AJS Answers come *after* questions. -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
On 11/09/2011 04:37 AM, A J Stiles wrote: On Tuesday 08 November 2011, Yaroslav Panych wrote: Greetings I have found next paragraph in Licence file(source root) Digium, Inc. (formerly Linux Support Services) holds copyright and/or sufficient licenses to all components of the Asterisk package, and therefore can grant, at its sole discretion, the ability for companies, individuals, or organizations to create proprietary or Open Source (even if not GPL) modules which may be dynamically linked at runtime with the portions of Asterisk which fall under our copyright/license umbrella, or are distributed under more flexible licenses than GPL. What does it mean? Does it mean I can write non-GPL modules(BSD, MIT, etc)? Can I build my modules in common asterisk source tree(i.e. using LOCAL_MOD_SUBDIRS=my_mod_subdirs_list make ) or must use separate tree? If so, then since Asterisk core does not accepts anything except AST_MODULE_INFO(ASTERISK_GPL_KEY, ) what I should do here? If you write modules that need to be compiled against the Asterisk Source Code, then the resulting compiled binaries are by definition derivative works of Asterisk. The GPL already gives you permission to release those modules under the GPL. And Fair Dealing / Fair Use provisions of copyright law mean you need no explicit permission to make use of those modules yourself for their rightful purpose. You require a special, separate licence from Asterisk to distribute compiled binaries which are derived works of Asterisk under anything but the GPL. Other people can, also under Fair Dealing provisions, compile their own legitimately-acquired copy of your module Source Code against their own legitimately-acquired copy of the Asterisk Source Code; but what they end up with may well be unredistributable. What you *can't* do is distribute your modules *as pre-compiled binaries* under any licence beside the GPL -- if they are distributed under any other licence, they *must* be compiled on-site by the end user. This is not true. Distribution in source or binary form makes no difference; if you produce an Asterisk module (that falls under the 'derivative work' classification), whether you distribute it in source or binary form you must distribute it under the terms of the GPLv2 unless you have been granted explicit permission to do otherwise. Of course, as I said in my original reply, anyone who has plans to distribute Asterisk-derived works and wishes to do us under any license other than the GPLv2 would be wise to consult legal counsel in their area to learn how the license affects their plans. -- Kevin P. Fleming Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies Jabber: kflem...@digium.com | SIP: kpflem...@digium.com | Skype: kpfleming 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA Check us out at www.digium.com www.asterisk.org -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
I shall contact when(and if) decision will be made. But such decision cannot be made basing only on this paragraph, because it does not describes anything. There are no description of licensing procedure, nor pricing, nor liability, rights or freedoms(at least in general approximation) of sides. So I'm here asking and asking again. In any case, even usage of GPL-ed copy of Asterisk(or any other software) is illegal in my country. regards, Yaroslav. -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
On 11/09/2011 07:59 AM, Yaroslav Panych wrote: I shall contact when(and if) decision will be made. But such decision cannot be made basing only on this paragraph, because it does not describes anything. There are no description of licensing procedure, nor pricing, nor liability, rights or freedoms(at least in general approximation) of sides. So I'm here asking and asking again. In any case, even usage of GPL-ed copy of Asterisk(or any other software) is illegal in my country. Why would you expect a single paragraph in the Asterisk source tree to have a complete description of Digium's commercial licensing options? It wouldn't even make sense for that to be in the source tree, disregarding that commercial license terms are typically negotiated with each customer based on their unique situation. Your last question doesn't make any sense; you are asking us if usage of GPLv2-licensed software is illegal in your country? We don't even know what country you live in, and even if we did, the answer to that question is something you need to obtain from people who clearly understand your country's laws. -- Kevin P. Fleming Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies Jabber: kflem...@digium.com | SIP: kpflem...@digium.com | Skype: kpfleming 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA Check us out at www.digium.com www.asterisk.org -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
On Wednesday 09 Nov 2011, Yaroslav Panych wrote: I shall contact when(and if) decision will be made. But such decision cannot be made basing only on this paragraph, because it does not describes anything. There are no description of licensing procedure, nor pricing, nor liability, rights or freedoms(at least in general approximation) of sides. So I'm here asking and asking again. In any case, even usage of GPL-ed copy of Asterisk(or any other software) is illegal in my country. If I understand your situation correctly, the solution is very simple and two-fold: 1. You want to develop and distribute FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) extensions for Asterisk. These extensions may be modules or enhancements. In this situation, just go ahead and develop the extensions and distribute them under GPLv2. 2. You want to develop and distribute extensions for Asterisk but don't want to release their source. In this situation, get a source code licence from Digium (or whoever has Asterisk source copyright) under a non-GPLv2 licence. Develop and release your extensions under a proprietary licence. You have no obligation to release their source, since your extensions are derived from a non-GPL licence. Of course, Digium (or whoever) will impose conditions on your use of the source they license to you, but that is between you and Digium (or whoever) and doesn't concern anyone else. This is obviously very generalised and doesn't cover all cases, but it does cover the basic dual-licensing policy. I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. In fact, as others have also stated, it is highly recommended you consult with a lawyer who is well-versed in licensing and specially FOSS licensing. Regards, -- Raj -- Raj Mathur || r...@kandalaya.org || GPG: http://otheronepercent.blogspot.com || http://kandalaya.org || CC68 It is the mind that moves || http://schizoid.in || D17F -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
On Wednesday 09 November 2011, Kevin P. Fleming wrote: On 11/09/2011 04:37 AM, I wrote: What you *can't* do is distribute your modules *as pre-compiled binaries* under any licence beside the GPL -- if they are distributed under any other licence, they *must* be compiled on-site by the end user. This is not true. Distribution in source or binary form makes no difference; if you produce an Asterisk module (that falls under the 'derivative work' classification), whether you distribute it in source or binary form you must distribute it under the terms of the GPLv2 unless you have been granted explicit permission to do otherwise. But so long as you were careful not to copy any of the code you are going to link against into your Source Code (and why would you, if you were linking against it?), it only *becomes* a derivative work *after* it has been compiled. The Source Code for your module is your own independent work (even although it may well be useless without Asterisk) and therefore subject to your own choice of licence. Once it's compiled, the binary contains Asterisk code and so *is* a derivative work. It now falls under a combined licence, and thereafter you can *only* distribute it in accordance with the terms of *both* licences. This is where you risk running afoul of clause 6, no additional restrictions. But as long as you acquired the Asterisk Source Code legitimately, the GPL does not restrict you *using* it (that's a statutory right) -- only *distributing* it (which is a reserved right). Of course, as I said in my original reply, anyone who has plans to distribute Asterisk-derived works and wishes to do us under any license other than the GPLv2 would be wise to consult legal counsel in their area to learn how the license affects their plans. Agreed. If everybody just used the GPL, there wouldn't be any problems with licensing. -- AJS Answers come *after* questions. -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
But so long as you were careful not to copy any of the code you are going to link against into your Source Code (and why would you, if you were linking against it?), it only *becomes* a derivative work *after* it has been compiled. That's not necessarily true because if you have a work that cannot be used independently (e.g. a plug-in), there are numerous court precedents that say that it indeed is a derived work. This area of the law is very complex and people should really consult an attorney experienced in this area if they care about such things. -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
[asterisk-users] Licensing question.
Greetings I have found next paragraph in Licence file(source root) Digium, Inc. (formerly Linux Support Services) holds copyright and/or sufficient licenses to all components of the Asterisk package, and therefore can grant, at its sole discretion, the ability for companies, individuals, or organizations to create proprietary or Open Source (even if not GPL) modules which may be dynamically linked at runtime with the portions of Asterisk which fall under our copyright/license umbrella, or are distributed under more flexible licenses than GPL. What does it mean? Does it mean I can write non-GPL modules(BSD, MIT, etc)? Can I build my modules in common asterisk source tree(i.e. using LOCAL_MOD_SUBDIRS=my_mod_subdirs_list make ) or must use separate tree? If so, then since Asterisk core does not accepts anything except AST_MODULE_INFO(ASTERISK_GPL_KEY, ) what I should do here? regards, Yaroslav. -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Licensing question.
On 11/08/2011 04:47 PM, Yaroslav Panych wrote: Greetings I have found next paragraph in Licence file(source root) Digium, Inc. (formerly Linux Support Services) holds copyright and/or sufficient licenses to all components of the Asterisk package, and therefore can grant, at its sole discretion, the ability for companies, individuals, or organizations to create proprietary or Open Source (even if not GPL) modules which may be dynamically linked at runtime with the portions of Asterisk which fall under our copyright/license umbrella, or are distributed under more flexible licenses than GPL. What does it mean? Does it mean I can write non-GPL modules(BSD, MIT, etc)? Can I build my modules in common asterisk source tree(i.e. using LOCAL_MOD_SUBDIRS=my_mod_subdirs_list make ) or must use separate tree? If so, then since Asterisk core does not accepts anything except AST_MODULE_INFO(ASTERISK_GPL_KEY, ) what I should do here? Asking for people on this list to tell you what 'this means' is like asking people on this list to tell you what is wrong with you if you have a headache and a fever; you will get answers, but they won't be as useful as if you asked an expert in that field of inquiry :-) In spite of that, I'll give you Digium's interpretation of what that paragraph means and attempt to answer your questions. Since Digium is the 'licensor' in this equation, our opinion certainly carries some weight, but you should consult with your own legal counsel in order to determine whether the actions you wish to take are compatible with the license terms or not. The paragraph you quoted above doesn't directly grant you any rights at all; it is only a statement that Digium can, and does, grant third parties the ability to produce and distribute works that could be classified as 'derivative works' of Asterisk without being subject to the provisions of the GPL version 2 (as they would otherwise be, since most people receive Asterisk under that license). If you have a need for such a license, you should contact Digium to inquire about it. As far as your other questions go, they are fairly vague, but I can attempt to answer them: * The GPLv2 places no restrictions on what you can 'write', it only places restrictions on your distribution of things that you write that could be considered 'derivative works' of a GPLv2-covered work (in this case, Asterisk). If you write something that could be considered a derivative work, and you wish to distribute it, then the GPLv2 obligates you to distribute that work under the GPLv2 or a compatible license. Most versions of BSD-style licenses, the MIT license, and many others are GPLv2 compatible. Many open source licenses are not; the Free Software Foundation maintains a page on their website covering this topic. * The GPLv2 places no restrictions on how you build your works, where you place the source code, or anything of the sort. * The module loader in Asterisk, as distributed by Digium under the terms of the GPLv2, does make a simple check to ensure that modules that are being loaded into a running Asterisk instance claim to be licensed under the GPLv2 (or a compatible license) themselves. This is an effort to ensure that someone distributing such a module will be aware that they need to consider the license under which they distribute it. If you want to produce your own modules and distribute them inside your organization without putting the ASTERISK_GPL_KEY into them (although for distribution inside your organization this won't really make much difference), you can certainly modify the module loader to skip this check (you do have the source code, after all). -- Kevin P. Fleming Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies Jabber: kflem...@digium.com | SIP: kpflem...@digium.com | Skype: kpfleming 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA Check us out at www.digium.com www.asterisk.org -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
