asterisk users - Oct 2004 - GPL Violations (Was: Advice on OS Choice)

From: "Brian West" <brian at bkw dot org>:

-begin-

Personally if the copyright holder of a GPL software such as Asterisk or 
any GPL software allows someone to violate the GPL then allow them to 
skid by is setting a bad precedent for the GPL.  I think if you find a 
GPL violation you must stand up and make an example out of said company. 
  If a copyright holder doesn't standup and say something that only 
weakens the GPL's power. The GPL is still untested in the court system.

-end-

IANAL but you can make any changes you want provided you do not 
distribute/sell the changed software without making the changed code 
available. And AFAIK *Available* does not mean "ship with". Available 
can mean download, CVS or other means. Distribution is what triggers the 
GPL. And use within a company does not, I believe, constitute distribution.

I also think GPL violations are rare. But there was a highly publicized 
alleged violation by Cisco/Linksys:

http://lkml.org/lkml/2003/6/7/164

To be honest I don't even know the end of that story (if it has 
ended)... probably some bureaucratic snafu.

Regards,

-- 
Jason Becker
Director & CEO
Coalescent Systems Inc.
403.244.8089
www.voxbox.ca

> IANAL but you can make any changes you want provided you do not
> distribute/sell the changed software without making the changed code
> available. And AFAIK *Available* does not mean "ship with".
Available
> can mean download, CVS or other means. Distribution is what triggers the
> GPL. And use within a company does not, I believe, constitute
> distribution.
> 
> I also think GPL violations are rare. But there was a highly publicized
> alleged violation by Cisco/Linksys:
I hate to say this but it's not as rare as you think.  

bkw

Jason Becker wrote:
> 
> I also think GPL violations are rare. But there was a highly publicized 
> alleged violation by Cisco/Linksys:
> 
> http://lkml.org/lkml/2003/6/7/164
> 
> To be honest I don't even know the end of that story (if it has 
> ended)... probably some bureaucratic snafu.
> 
AFAIK Linksys admitted their error and published the source, including 
the full build environment.

http://www.linksys.com/support/gpl.asp

This has resulted in a number of open source firmware projects that add 
features to the router in question and other Linksys appliances that use 
Linux.

Linksys/Cisco are now seen as one of the better companies with respect 
to the gpl.

Break down and learn Debian, its more GNU than you. You'll never go
back. Also worth mentioning is Ubuntu Linux which is a Debian offshoot.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
http://www.debian.org

-Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of James H.
Thompson
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 7:21 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] GPL Violations (Was: Advice on OS Choice)

Brian West wrote:
Not to aruge one way or the other, but there are a number of free RH
Enterprise work-alike
distributions

    http://www.taolinux.org/

    http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/

etc.


Jim

James H. Thompson
jht@lj.net

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