Some observations about licensing on the example of the product Multifon (Megaphone)
As is known from previous discussions: 1 , 2 , 3 Megaphone has the “Multifon” service.
As part of this service Megafon "Multifon" is proposed to download the SIP phone to your computer and make calls.
So, we put, we start, we look in "About the program":
"It is used by libavcodec.dll from the FFMPEG project under the GNU LGPL license."
Truly, it is used - in the directory with the program we find libavcodec.dll. Distribution terms under the LGPL are respected.
And also we find two files crashrpt.dll and libetpan.dll. We study them in more detail.
')
crashrpt.dll - project CrashRpt , released under the license New BSD License , where the following lines are present:
This is a list of materials provided with the distribution.
What the translation means is that when it is distributed in binary, it must be accompanied by a copyright warning and a current license. There is no separate license file in the Multifon, there is no required data in the About dialog.
libetpan.dll is the libetpam project released under its own license with the following strings:
This is a list of materials provided with the distribution.
What the translation means is that when it is distributed in binary, it must be accompanied by a copyright warning and a current license. There is no separate license file in the Multifon, there is no required data in the About dialog.
Let's dig a little deeper - in the MegaFon \ MultiFon \ Themes \ MegafonNew.actheme file the name is specified - Bjorn Kaxe. A search on Linkedin.com indicates a person - who is currently working at some kind of telepo.com , which is developing softphones and other things.
Now questions:
1) Did telepo.com license the CrashRpt component from its owner?
2) Did telepo.com license the libetpan library from its owner?
3) Do they fully own the situation in Megafon regarding their product - Multiphone?
Upd: added summary:
I agree, there is no perfection in the world. Multiphone is an additional service, a shell for SIP.
However, it is possible that a third-party developer, without looking, will include a fairly well-known component under the GPL license. And here a situation is possible when the authors of the component will go to the end and will demand reimbursement or compliance with the GPL license - after all, Megafon is a fairly large company.
If such a situation happened to the Multifon, then this could lead to the need to publish the GIPS codec code, which will certainly violate the agreements of telepo.com and gipscorp.com. It would have been a legal collision. And since there is certainly a clause in the agreement between Megaphone and telepo.com that says “The developer is responsible for the licensed purity of the product”, the position of the developer would be very difficult.
And by the way, legally, claims would most likely be exposed to Megafon, since telepo.com is not listed in the list of authors of the program.
Summarizing - when buying a finished product, it is always necessary to analyze the licensing code. And if the code is not supplied, then examine the licenses of the libraries and components used. It is clear that LLC “Three refueling” is unlikely to do this, but the largest companies could attend to this.
As part of this service Megafon "Multifon" is proposed to download the SIP phone to your computer and make calls.
So, we put, we start, we look in "About the program":
"It is used by libavcodec.dll from the FFMPEG project under the GNU LGPL license."
Truly, it is used - in the directory with the program we find libavcodec.dll. Distribution terms under the LGPL are respected.
And also we find two files crashrpt.dll and libetpan.dll. We study them in more detail.
')
crashrpt.dll - project CrashRpt , released under the license New BSD License , where the following lines are present:
This is a list of materials provided with the distribution.
What the translation means is that when it is distributed in binary, it must be accompanied by a copyright warning and a current license. There is no separate license file in the Multifon, there is no required data in the About dialog.
libetpan.dll is the libetpam project released under its own license with the following strings:
This is a list of materials provided with the distribution.
What the translation means is that when it is distributed in binary, it must be accompanied by a copyright warning and a current license. There is no separate license file in the Multifon, there is no required data in the About dialog.
Let's dig a little deeper - in the MegaFon \ MultiFon \ Themes \ MegafonNew.actheme file the name is specified - Bjorn Kaxe. A search on Linkedin.com indicates a person - who is currently working at some kind of telepo.com , which is developing softphones and other things.
Now questions:
1) Did telepo.com license the CrashRpt component from its owner?
2) Did telepo.com license the libetpan library from its owner?
3) Do they fully own the situation in Megafon regarding their product - Multiphone?
Upd: added summary:
I agree, there is no perfection in the world. Multiphone is an additional service, a shell for SIP.
However, it is possible that a third-party developer, without looking, will include a fairly well-known component under the GPL license. And here a situation is possible when the authors of the component will go to the end and will demand reimbursement or compliance with the GPL license - after all, Megafon is a fairly large company.
If such a situation happened to the Multifon, then this could lead to the need to publish the GIPS codec code, which will certainly violate the agreements of telepo.com and gipscorp.com. It would have been a legal collision. And since there is certainly a clause in the agreement between Megaphone and telepo.com that says “The developer is responsible for the licensed purity of the product”, the position of the developer would be very difficult.
And by the way, legally, claims would most likely be exposed to Megafon, since telepo.com is not listed in the list of authors of the program.
Summarizing - when buying a finished product, it is always necessary to analyze the licensing code. And if the code is not supplied, then examine the licenses of the libraries and components used. It is clear that LLC “Three refueling” is unlikely to do this, but the largest companies could attend to this.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/77773/
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