[Xastir] Radio frequency question from a simpleton

[Gerry Creager]

Xastir's use of the protocols is well established and without dissent. 
 From Bob or any of the other developers.  In fact, no one has 
complained when anyone wanted to come up with another implementation. 
Bob also didn't charge me when I used APRS-DOS (pre-Xastir) to track cows...

gerry

James Ewen wrote:
> On 7/19/07, Curt, WE7U <archer at eskimo.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 19 Jul 2007, Jason Winningham wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > On Jul 19, 2007, at 2:20 PM, James Ewen wrote:
>> >
>> > > Plus APRS is available for no fee to the amateur radio community, but
>> > > you need to talk to Bob Bruninga about licensing it for commercial
>> > > use.
>> >
>> > I thought that was for the application APRS-DOS, not the protocol
>> > itself?
>>
>> That's my take on it too Jason.
> 
>> From :
> 
> http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/APRS-docs/COMMERCL.TXT
> 
> COPYRIGHT 1993,94,95,96,97:  The APRS formats originated for use in the
> amateur radio service.  Anyone is encouraged to apply the APRS formats in
> the TRANSMISSION of position, weather, and status packets.  However, the
> author reserves the ownership of these protocols for exclusive commercial
> application and for all reception and plotting applications.  Other
> software engineers desiring to include APRS RECEPTION in their software
> for sale within or outside of the amateur community will require a license
> from the author.  (very reasonably priced)
> 
> 
> The wording is poor, but the intent is pretty clear... Bob reserves
> ownership of the protocol for commercial use. Not just the program he
> wrote to encode/decode the protocol, but the actual APRS protocol.
> 
> Does Xastir get around the license for reception because the software
> is not for sale, or did someone purchase a license? I would guess that
> if Xastir purchased a license somewhere along the way, that it would
> probably go against the GPL license...
> 
> Uh-oh... sounds like the lid just popped off a can of worms.
> 
> James
> VE6SRV
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-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University
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