[SR-Users] SEMS license with kamailio and rtpengine
Daniel-Constantin Mierla
miconda at gmail.com
Thu Feb 10 09:01:12 CET 2022
Hello,
On 10.02.22 08:36, Henning Westerholt wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>
>
> just to add to the discussion:
>
>
>
> * Please have a look to the GPLv2 FAQ, many topics you’ve raised are
> discussed there
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html
> * You should really consult a lawyer for this specific questions
>
>
>
> Regarding the licence of the configuration (native script vs. KEMI) –
> my understanding would be that a native Kamailio cfg script would be
> independent of GPL as its interpreted (and practically the customer
> gets the “source code” anyway). But KEMI LUA code that is pre-compiled
> would fall under the GPL, so the customer has a right to get the
> source code for it. Compare e.g., to this:
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL
>
>
>
I guess that the pre-compile is done by the luac, because Kamailio does
not have such feature. Kamailio can only load a lua script (plain or
pre-compiled) and push it as a parameter to liblua functions. In my
opinion this is only file/data loading from kamailio point of view,
definitely does not seem a linking/compile operation. It can be seen as
something similar to reading SIP messages from the socket (everything is
a file descriptor in unix/linux philosophy) and I assume nobody
considers that received/sent SIP messages have to be GPL.
>From this perspective, none of the config files (no matter they are
native scripting, lua, python, javascript, etc...) are forced to be GPL,
it is the decision of the config author what's its license.
Cheers,
Daniel
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Henning
>
>
>
> --
>
> Henning Westerholt – https://skalatan.de/blog/ <https://skalatan.de/blog/>
>
> Kamailio services – https://gilawa.com <https://gilawa.com/>
>
>
>
> *From:* sr-users <sr-users-bounces at lists.kamailio.org> *On Behalf Of
> *Olle E. Johansson
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 10, 2022 8:13 AM
> *To:* Kamailio (SER) - Users Mailing List <sr-users at lists.kamailio.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [SR-Users] SEMS license with kamailio and rtpengine
>
>
>
> Hi Seven!
>
> Note that many of these questions open a legal discussion that has
> been going on for many years. I base my answers on what I know, which
> may not be the full truth. Regardless, I have been involved in these
> kind of discussions for almost 30 years of working in open source.
>
>
>
> First, note that there are two kind of situations to observe. One is
> when your application is executing in a system. The other is the
> license of the written source code files.
>
>
>
> Secondly, license and copyright are two different things. You always
> have the copyright to your source code.
>
>
>
> In Kamailio there are source code files that have a different license
> than the rest of the files. That means that if you copy that source
> code and create a new product that license applies.
>
>
>
> Kamailio as a whole is released under GPL version 2. When you run
> Kamailio in your server, that license applies to it all, regardless of
> the license of various source code files.
>
>
>
> Also note that I base this discussion on a delivery of a system to a
> customer. When you run Kamailio as a service you do not deliver
> (according to GPL v2) and the customer doesn’t have the same rights to
> the source.
>
>
>
> Also note that (as other persons has pointed out) that it’s the
> recipient of the binaries that has the rights, not the world. If I am
> not your customer, I can’t demand the source code according to the
> GPL. The customer that receives the code has the right to do whatever
> they want with it - like publishing the source on GitHub for the world
> to enjoy.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 10 feb. 2022 kl. 00:16 skrev Seven Du <dujinfang at gmail.com>:
>
>
>
> I have some questions on this, e.g. on Kamailio:
>
>
>
> 1. The core and some modules is GPL. I packaged that without
> change, and sell to a customer. and when the customer asks for
> source, I told him to download from the kamailio website, since I
> didn't change anything. Is that correct?
>
> How you distribute the source code to the customer is irrelevant here.
> Note that if you end up having to provide it on a floppy disk or a USB
> stick, you can charge for that according to the GPL :-)
>
>
>
> 2. I can also host the source on my own website, with some more
> helper scripts for building and packaging. That should be better?
>
> I can’t judge if it’s better or worse, it has very little relevance to
> with the license. Just make sure that you include the signatures made
> by the Kamailio team so the customer can trace it back to the source
> and make sure there’s no changes.
>
>
>
>
>
> 3. I write a new module, 100% code wrote from scratch, just follow
> the module guidelines or example code to expose/add hooks to
> core, dynamically loaded into kamailio. Do I need to use GPL or
> can it be any license or even closed source? can I sell the
> standalone module in binary?
>
> Your source code has to be licensed in a license that can end up being
> compatible with GPL. You can not have a commercial license on it,
> since when executing it as part of Kamailio, GPL applies.
>
> Since your module ends up being GPL while running in a system you
> deliver for a fee or for free to your customer, your customers has a
> right to the source code.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 4. my module still should be GPL since I have to call GPL code in
> kamailio source, e.g. string functions in core. or maybe it's ok
> if string functions in kamailio core is BSD?
>
> When executing ALL of Kamailio is GPL, including all linked modules.
>
>
>
>
>
> 5. If my module link to a 3rd party lib (e.g. libclosed-source.so
> or libclosed-source.a I think there's no difference?) which is not
> open source (but free to sell), can I sell it w/o the source of
> libclosed-source ?
>
> Linking means that you execute in the same processes and according to
> most this means that GPL applies. That’s why we have a lot of
> protocols where most people think that GPL does not apply, even though
> some people want to discuss that. In my personal view it’s ok to write
> commercial software that communicates over RPC or by using the
> http_client with Kamailio.
>
>
>
> In Asterisk, the license specially permits this use of the various
> Asterisk protocols since there was discussions. Most Asterisk
> developers believed it wasn’t necessary and that GPL did not apply
> when using protocol based API’s. But nevertheless, just to avoid
> discussions, this was clarified in the license.
>
>
>
> 6. If answer to 5 is yes, I can write my own libclosed-source and
> sell with whatever license?
>
> You can, but if it links to Kamailio in run-time, then it will at that
> point become GPL licensed regardless of what you have written. That’s
> why many companies stay away from GPL, especially libraries that are
> licensed with GPL, because it can affect your own licenses.
>
>
>
>
>
> 7. Regards to KEMI, if I write routing scripts with Lua (compiled
> with luac) and sell to a customer, should I open source the Lua
> code? The Lua code calls Kamailio core functions which might be GPL.
>
> That is an interesting question which I’m not ready to answer. I think
> the intention of the Kamailio dev team is that your code should not be
> affected by GPL, but we may want to clarify that.
>
>
>
> If you write a regular configuration script I would personally clearly
> think you have the rights to that. The idea with KEMI was to introduce
> modern ways of writing configuration scripts.
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks. I don't mean to violate the GPL, just want to be clear and
> easier to understand the license.
>
> Always good to start the day with a GPL discussion :-)
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> /O
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 9:05 PM Henning Westerholt <hw at gilawa.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> (just to add the obvious disclaimer that this is not legal
> advice, I am not a lawyer).
>
> > [Would it be ok] if it were [using] a standalone service to
> which Kamailio interfaced using very narrowly confined and
> general-purpose communication channels?
>
> I do not think there is a problem regarding to the GPL in this
> case. Interfacing over SIP/HTTP/RPC/XMLRPC or other standard
> mechanism to a dedicated process would not establish a close
> coupling between Kamailio and the other code.
>
>
>
> I think it's correct. e.g. if you use evapi or http to talk to
> your service you don't have to open source your service code.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Henning
>
> --
> Henning Westerholt – https://skalatan.de/blog/
> Kamailio services – https://gilawa.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sr-users <sr-users-bounces at lists.kamailio.org> On Behalf
> Of Alex Balashov
> Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 1:50 PM
> To: Kamailio (SER) - Users Mailing List
> <sr-users at lists.kamailio.org>
> Subject: Re: [SR-Users] SEMS license with kamailio and rtpengine
>
>
> > On Feb 9, 2022, at 7:46 AM, Henning Westerholt
> <hw at gilawa.com> wrote:
> >
> >> If modules are designed to run linked together in a shared
> address space, that almost surely means combining them into
> one program.”
> >
> > This is exactly what applies to Kamailio due to the core and
> module architecture. The core and modules also share common
> data structures and memory segments.
>
> I see. So, practically, the only way a custom module could be
> considered meaningfully separate according to these criteria
> is if it were a standalone service to which Kamailio
> interfaced using very narrowly confined and general-purpose
> communication channels?
>
> — Alex
>
> --
> Alex Balashov | Principal | Evariste Systems LLC
>
> Tel: +1-706-510-6800 / +1-800-250-5920 (toll-free)
> Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/, http://www.csrpswitch.com/
>
>
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>
>
>
> --
>
> About: http://about.me/dujinfang
> Blog: http://www.dujinfang.com
> Proj: http://www.freeswitch.org.cn
>
> __________________________________________________________
> Kamailio - Users Mailing List - Non Commercial Discussions
> * sr-users at lists.kamailio.org
> Important: keep the mailing list in the recipients, do not reply
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>
>
>
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> Important: keep the mailing list in the recipients, do not reply only to the sender!
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--
Daniel-Constantin Mierla -- www.asipto.com
www.twitter.com/miconda -- www.linkedin.com/in/miconda
Kamailio Advanced Training - Online
Feb 21-24, 2022 (America Timezone)
* https://www.asipto.com/sw/kamailio-advanced-training-online/
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