
Opus codec available now in Asterisk - kimi
http://blogs.digium.com/2016/09/30/opus-in-asterisk/
======
briankwest
Or you could just use FreeSWITCH, We've had OPUS for a long time, full WebRTC
stack, and full Video MCU / Transcoding features.
[http://www.freeswitch.org](http://www.freeswitch.org)

I understand Digiums concerns, but I feel they aren't warranted. There are
open source equivelent patches out there to accomplish OPUS in Asterisk
without the phone home element.

/b

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zdw
Does anyone have more detail on the licensing issues with Opus that caused the
binary module/daily "phone home to Digium" license check?

~~~
microcolonel
I think they are concerned that there may _still_ be some unexplored patents
which apply to Opus. If they don't track the numbers, then they may need to
pay the absolute maximum license fee to a (future, unknown) patent holder
because they can't bound the number of licensees.

That is, of course, assuming there are still IP issues. I'm not sure what made
them concerned about that, if anything tangible.

Notably, the Opus license is voided when you enter Opus-related patent
litigation with an Opus user. I think many(most?) companies which hold patents
relevant to Opus also license Opus for their products; so they would be
trading patent litigation for copyright litigation.

From the Opus licensing page¹:

When it comes to patents, it is difficult to say much without making lawyers
nervous. However, we can say something quite direct: external counsel
Dergosits & Noah has advised us that Opus can be implemented without the need
to license the patents disclosed by Qualcomm, Huawei, France Telecom, or
Ericsson. We can also say that Mozilla is confident enough in Opus to ship it
to hundreds of millions of Firefox users. Similarly, Cisco and Google are also
supporting Opus in some products. More companies are expected to do the same
soon.

Mozilla invested significant legal resources into avoiding known patent
thickets when designing Opus. Whenever possible, we used processes and methods
that have been long known in the field and which are considered patent-free.
In addition, we filed numerous patent applications on the new things we
invented to help defend the Opus community. As a result, Opus is available on
a royalty-free basis and can be deployed by anyone, including other open-
source projects. Everyone knows this is an incredibly challenging legal
environment to operate in, but we think we’ve succeeded.

1\. [http://www.opus-codec.org/license/](http://www.opus-codec.org/license/)

~~~
mynameislegion
I wonder if they got shook down by a patent troll?

~~~
mynameislegion
If so, Oracle did too:

> Transcoding the Opus codec requires a special license as it is subject to a
> royalty agreement.

[https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E61547_01/doc/esbc_ecz730_mainten...](https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E61547_01/doc/esbc_ecz730_maintenancerelease.pdf)

~~~
microcolonel
I think they are referring to the non-litigation clause in the Opus license.
Oracle probably charges extra for taking on the burden of potentially not
litigating because of that license.

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tfar
Also see this for Asterix, Opos, VP8 and patents:
[http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-
dev/2013-May/0604...](http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-
dev/2013-May/060419.html)

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brudgers
Asterisk project home: [http://www.asterisk.org/](http://www.asterisk.org/)

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flamealpaca
Does any modern Voip app use SIP?

~~~
Steltek
Depends on what you mean by 'modern'. You may as well ask "Does any modern
messaging app use XMPP?" Consumer facing open protocols are going extinct in
favor of walled gardens and closed markets.

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miohtama
What IPR issues Opus has?

~~~
kimi
Digium seems to think it has some, so they have been dragging their feet for
~3 years now. So this is a start.

