The tricky little thing (wait, the “evil” little thing) about Business Edition is that when a company buys it from Digium, they are allowed to make changes and don’t ever have to give those changes back to the GPL or open community (so long as they continue to pay and annual “maintenance” fee to Digium.)”

In all fairness, this isn’t accurate. Companies are not allowed to make any changes to asterisk business edition’s code, or even have access to it.
Asterisk business edition is not an enterprise version of asterisk with more features, and it’s quite well known that it is based on an older version of 1.2 asterisk. They sell a closed source version of the open source code because that way they can garauntee that the source code has not been changed, and thus can provide support for it. In all reality, when you buy asterisk business edition, you are pretty much buying support.

I’m also confused as to your knowledge about open source in general with these types of comments. Under the GPL, anyone can make any change they want to open source software without releasing it back to the public. It clearly defines cases like this, and the stipulation is, that you must release the source to any GPL licensed software, *IF* you release that software. Any modifications you make that for internal use do not have to be redistributed back whatsoever. I would suggest you read the entire GPL a little more carefully.

“Wonder why reporters never discuss that Digium’s profit model is actually based on a closed source licensing schema? Maybe because they don’t do their homework? Or, perhaps they feel that all that open source mumbo jumbo is too complex to dig into? But, isn’t it he job of the journalist to go beyond the talking points of a company’s PR department?”

I have actually been keeping an eye on this issue for a while now, although I have been reluctant to bash Digium without fully understanding the issue. My opinion at the moment is that it isn’t an issue of journalists not doing their job, but that the open source press and the VoIP press aren’t necessarily the same people, nor do the VoIP crowd often fully understand the finer points of the GPL or worry about the “spirit” of open source the same way that the press who’ve been covering Linux for 5-10 years do. There’s no Bruce Perens in the VoIP corner yet to bring these issues to light.

And again, I wonder whether people buying PBXs are even that concerned about open source and moral high ground; whether Digium’s profit model is based on a closed source licensing schema or not, the masses will, as you said, vote with their wallets. So as long as Digium is not breaking any laws, it may not make a difference to anyone except open source pundits.

So, by doing this he opened himself up to wave of criticism as he never addressed Digium’s own long-standing closed source secret. Digium has long sold a closed source version of Asterisk called “Asterisk Business Edition”. The tricky little thing (wait, the “evil” little thing) about Business Edition is that when a company buys it from Digium, they are allowed to make changes and don’t ever have to give those changes back to the GPL or open community (so long as they continue to pay and annual “maintenance” fee to Digium.) So, in effect, this little contract allows the company to continue to pull new code from the open community but never give their own enhancements to it back. This is clearly not in the spirit of open source. This is in the spirit of profiting off of closed software. Not a problem, really, until you start giving speeches with you perched on the moral high ground.

Wonder why reporters never discuss that Digium’s profit model is actually based on a closed source licensing schema? Maybe because they don’t do their homework? Or, perhaps they feel that all that open source mumbo jumbo is too complex to dig into? But, isn’t it he job of the journalist to go beyond the talking points of a company’s PR department?

Then, two weeks ago, Digium further colored their own self-evangelized status of innocence. They bought a 100% closed-source Asterisk PBX company called switchVOX. When asked several times about their plans Mark Spencer would only make vague comments about how certain portions will be made open. It is clear that Digium will not open source all of their new acquisition, which will in effect deepen Digium’s long-standing commitment to closed source software.

Business models are not based on good or evil. They are based on making a profit. And their responsibility with their customers is to be 100% honest with customers about how that business model works. Give the customers the honest information and let them vote with their wallets.

So, Mark Spencer’s vision of a good vs. evil is simplistic and binary in nature. What he should focus on is being 100% truthful with Digium’s own closed source strategy. Evil can only fester in the shadows of dishonesty.