asterisk users - Feb 2014 - G729 Licensing Revisited - I'm Sorry!

Hello Everyone,

We are looking to transition our 23 channels from testing/lab into
production. During testing we used the free open source g729 license
using the instructions found here:

http://blog.manhag.org/2010/05/installing-the-free-g729-codec-for-asterisk/

A little more about our setup. All recordings have been converted to
G729, all voicemail messages are also in G729, finally allow=g729,
disallow=all is specified in our config.

Questions:

1) Is there anything we overlooked in our attempt to implement g729
passthough, and stop all transcoding efforts?
2) do we still need to purchase 23 G729 licenses? If so, is asterisk
10$ license recognized by the patent holders (ie, is Digium authorized
to sell the license on behalf of the patent holders)?
3) Is there a performance/stability/security gain when using the
commercial vs. open source version or vice versa.

I was reluctant to bring this topic up yet again , and yes I did
google around and read the different material on the subject however,
I am still in need of some definitive answers.

Kind Regards,

Jayson Devor.

On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 5:24 PM, Jayson Devor <jayson.devor at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> We are looking to transition our 23 channels from testing/lab into
> production. During testing we used the free open source g729 license
> using the instructions found here:
>
> http://blog.manhag.org/2010/05/installing-the-free-g729-codec-for-asterisk/
>
No such thing as 'free open source g729 license', if you actually read
the site:

DISCLAIMER: You might have to pay royalty fees to the G.729/723.1
patent holders for using their algorithm.

So, basically you are illegal using them if you didn't pay for them.
> A little more about our setup. All recordings have been converted to
> G729, all voicemail messages are also in G729, finally allow=g729,
> disallow=all is specified in our config.
>
> Questions:
>
> 1) Is there anything we overlooked in our attempt to implement g729
> passthough, and stop all transcoding efforts?
> 2) do we still need to purchase 23 G729 licenses? If so, is asterisk
> 10$ license recognized by the patent holders (ie, is Digium authorized
> to sell the license on behalf of the patent holders)?
Yes, getting a license from digium should be sufficient to cover your
usage.  Plus you'll be supporting the project.
> 3) Is there a performance/stability/security gain when using the
> commercial vs. open source version or vice versa.
>
See above about about open source license.
> I was reluctant to bring this topic up yet again , and yes I did
> google around and read the different material on the subject however,
> I am still in need of some definitive answers.
>
-- 
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