On Fri, 2004-01-02 at 06:54, Nicolas Bougues wrote: > On Fri, Jan 02, 2004 at 12:23:52PM +0100, Michael Devenijn wrote: > > I have some strange question bout the asterisk (gpl license ...) but i'm not an > > experienced linux user ... > > > > What happens if for example a big company buys digium , do we have a garantuee > > that asterisk stays opensource ??? > > > > Until the last released version, yes. Digium owns the Copyright : they > can decide whenever they want that their next release will have any > other kind of licence (open or not). > > But what's released under the GPL stays so. Anyone can continue using > it, or even re-release it, provided that they still comply to the > GPL terms. Nobody, even Digium, can revoke the GPL licence for GPL-ed > software.
I'll answer this before Tilghman has to. Digium does not own all the copyrights to asterisk. They own the largest portion, and they have been granted permission by other contributers to use their code without compensation. Please read 1a of this document http://www.digium.com/disclaimer.txt. 1a allows Digium to sell licenses to the software even though they don't own all the copyrights, but they have a license to use the parts they don't own. You will see that unless you sign the above document, or the other one they have, they don't include your changes into the main repository. So while there is the possibility that someone could purchase Digium and take the software private, the last release before the act of taking it private will always be available via a GPL license. It is possible for us the community to at that point to take the last GPL version and maintain it ourselves. Downside would be that those who would require a commercial license to sidestep GPL requirements will be stuck trying to deal with the company who bought Digium. GPL guarantees you will have access to at least the version you are running for as long as it is available, then you need to have made a copy for yourself. Just think, the GPL puts you in a better position than Microsoft does considering Windows ME is no longer available and is under 4 years old. It is still possible to get older GPL software, even some that the projects groups or companies that created them have been disbanded for some time. Also remember the GPL is based on copyright law and builds extra support by having many people with copyright interest in the software. Here is an interesting article that should help explain the situation for you. It is written by a lawyer for RedHat. http://www.nswscl.org.au/journal/51/Mark_H_Webbink.html -- Steven Critchfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users