Re: [Iaxclient-devel] Re: codec support

[Steve K. <st...@st...>]

On Mar 7, 2004, at 12:10 PM, Mark Spencer wrote:

>> Hmm, maybe Mark can chime in on asterisk licensing.  It sounds like it
>> would be GPL-incompatible.
>
> As I understand it iaxclient is LGPL anyway.  Since Digium either has
> title to, or unrestricted rights to use, all the code in Asterisk, it 
> is
> uniquely in the position of making granting exceptions to the GPL 
> license,
> as we have in the case of open_h323, iLBC, and G.729.  This is part of 
> why
> we require disclaimers in order to merge the code into the main 
> Asterisk
> codebase.

Hmm.

After reading this, I was thinking that asterisk with iLBC (which is 
currently built by default, right?) is no longer under the GPL itself, 
and then cannot actually be linked with other GPL code, unless the 
author of the other GPL code grants the same exception [in which case 
it's no longer actually GPL].

I almost reconsidered that, because these exceptions make the license 
less restrictive.  You can always link GPL software against software 
with less restrictive licenses.  However, in order to link asterisk + 
iLBC + some GPL software, you would still then be linking the GPL 
module with iLBC, which you can't do, because then you'd be linking the 
GPL module with something more restrictive.

Licenses give me headaches.  I guess it would be a lot simpler if there 
was just Modified-BSD, GPL, and LGPL, instead of the multitude of 
incompatible free-software licenses we have today.

-SteveK