Recently, we were notified that the mechanism included in our Asterisk source code releases to download and build support for the iLBC codec had stopped working correctly; a little investigation revealed that this occurred because of some changes on the ilbcfreeware.org website. These changes occurred as result of Google's acquisition of GIPS, who produced (and provided licenses for) the iLBC codec. We've determined that the change necessary to fix Asterisk's iLBC build process is rather trivial, and so we're planning to make that change in Asterisk 1.8.7.0-rc2, and subsequently in 1.8.7.0. We are not planning on making new releases of Asterisk 1.4 and Asterisk 1.6.2, since they are in security-maintenance mode and this is not a security issue. Users who wish to make the same change on their own to their copies of those versions are of course welcome to do so. As part of the process of determining what had broken here, we also became aware that the ilbcfreeware.org website no longer offers the iLBC license agreement it used to offer; this agreement was required by the iLBC licensors (GIPS) in order for users to safely distribute and use iLBC (and this is why the Asterisk project does not include the iLBC source code directly with Asterisk). The removal of this license agreement also occurred as a result of the Google acquisition, but as of this moment no alternative has been made available for those who wish to use the iLBC source code published in RFC 3951 (which Asterisk uses). Google does have an alternative implementation of iLBC available as part of the WebRTC project, with a license that is compatible with Asterisk (and does not require written agreements from end users), but the codec_ilbc module in Asterisk cannot be built against the WebRTC implementation of iLBC. Until such time as we have an improved version of codec_ilbc, Asterisk users will have to continue using the RFC 3951 iLBC source code. Unfortunately, that leaves Asterisk users in a bit of a bind; if they had already signed and sent in the GIPS iLBC license agreement, we believe they can continue to safely use the existing iLBC implementation. New users, though, do not have the option of agreeing to a license agreement that would allow them to use the RFC 3951 iLBC source code, as there is no mechanism to do that currently available. We've contacted Google and they are aware of the dilemma, and have said that they will address it, but we don't have a timeframe for when an alternative license mechanism will be available. In summary, if you are a user of Asterisk and iLBC together, and you've already executed a license agreement with GIPS, we believe you can continue using iLBC with Asterisk. If you are a user of Asterisk and iLBC together, but you had not executed a license agreement with GIPS, we encourage you to research the situation and consult with your own legal representatives to determine what actions you may want to take (or avoid taking). -- Asterisk Development Team
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