[P2P-F] Fwd: [Open Manufacturing] OHW licenses

Sun Mar 6 06:25:08 CET 2011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 12:36 AM
Subject: Fwd: [Open Manufacturing] OHW licenses
To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>

I guess you noticed this...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Barkley <james.barkley at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 1:20 PM
Subject: [Open Manufacturing] OHW licenses
To: Open Manufacturing <openmanufacturing at googlegroups.com>

All,
We've created a page on the Open Hardware Roadmap wiki that discusses open
hardware licenses available at http://www.ohroadmap.org/licenses. Any
critiques? What did we miss or mis-state?

-jb

Licenses

While a wealth of open source licenses exist for Open Source Software (OSS),
the field of open source hardware (OSHW) is newer and lacking as many
defined licenses. When looking at licenses, especially when comparing an
Open Hardware Licenses with Open Source Software licenses, it is important
to note that hardware is typically covered by patents. Software, on the
other hand, is typically covered by copyright. Thus, they are both covered
under different legal systems. For parts of the design process, this
requires that those parts not covered by copyright need a license that
acknowledges that - one dedicated for hardware.

Unfortunately, many people are still using software licenses for their open
hardware projects. Most notably, the MIT and GPL licenses have been reused
frequently across open hardware projects such as Opencores (LGPL), FreeCores
(GPL), and the Open Graphics Project (MIT, GPL, and proprietary). These
projects will theoretically not have much legal recourse if their designs
get patented, made/sold, or used in a closed system. Many people are using
public works licenses such Creative
Commons<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_licenses>
.

*Limitations of OSS Licenses as applied to OSHW*
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?58,40874,40874
http://tapr.org/ohl.html

There are currently no OSI approved Open Hardware Licenses. Someone started
to triage all of the things needed to be done to get an open hardware
license approved by the OSI, but gave up on the project. This thread is
available at http://ideas.opensource.org/ticket/26.

Below is an attempt to capture all of the open hardware licenses available:

*OSHW Definition*
The Open Source Hardware Definition attempts to do for OSHW what the Open
Source Initiative Definition <http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd> did for
Open Source Software, which is provide a strict definition for what is and
isn't OSHW. While it is not a license in and of itself, it does provide a
guideline for determining whether a license does or does not meet the
requirement to be called Open Source. Some of the key items a licenses
required to be defined as OSHW under this are:

   - Complete Documentation of Hardware
   - Complete Design Files (in an open format when available)
   - Scope of License
   - Necessary Software that is Licensed by an OSI-approved
license<http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical>
   - Modifications Follow Equal or Lessor Licenses
   - Allows for attribution requirement
   - Freely Distributed

link(s):
http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/02/10/open-hardware-definition-1-0-released/
 OSHW Definition Conforming Licenses

*TAPR*
TAPR is the OSHW licenses that served as a guideline during the creation of
the Open Hardware Definition. TAPR is based off the OSS GNU GPL
License<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License>,
while addressing specifically the fact that open hardware is covered by a
different legal system (patents vs copyright). As such, it forbids any other
license from preventing the same rights to copy and modify documentation and
the make and use the product made using that documentation. There are
concerns about edge cases, however, as there is insufficient discussion of
the distribution terms.

link(s):
http://www.tapr.org/ohl.html

*Hardware Design Public License*
The HDPL, like the TAPR License, is also one of the licenses that preceded
and inspired the Open Source Hardware Definition. It is also inspired by the
OSS GNU GPL. It addresses many of the same issues, with a good number of
comments included to make clear the terms of the agreement. HDPL attempts to
create a more comprehensive license than TAPR, encompassing legal edge-cases
and a variety of hardware types, with clear definitions of terms.

link(s):
http://www.opencollector.org/hardlicense/hdpl.html
 Non-OSHW Definition Conforming Licenses

*Chumby HDK*
The Chumby HDK was developed for the Chumby <http://www.chumby.com/>, a
consumer electronics device 'internet appliance'. The Chumby does not meet
the requirements of the Open Source Hardware Definition, as it does not
publish the original schematics, all software source code, etc. What the
license does do, however, is provide a hacker-friendly license that allows
for modification free from harassment from manufacturers. As part of this
agreement, it also gives guarantee to Chumby that all modifications made to
the device are made with a non-exclusive rights agreement for chumby to use.

link(s):
http://www.chumby.com/developers/agreement

*Balloon License*
The Balloon License comes from the development of the Balloon, an OSHW
development board. The Balloon License does not folllow the Open Source
Hardware Definition. While the PCB layouts, etc are provided free of charge
and free to modify, the original design files are not provided. In short,
you can manufacture the device free of charge, but not make original edits
to the device without having to re-make the original design files (those
used to create the PCB layout). The license focuses on the hardware aspect
of the board, and does not include any software developed.

link(s):
http://www.balloonboard.org/licence.html

*Creative Commons*
The Creative Commons licesnse was originally created to cover works covered
by copyright . As such, it does not cover some aspects of hardware
(schematics, etc). However, it does cover board masks and documentation
associated with the hardware. The works and ll derivatives are freely
distributed, with the only requirements being attribution to the original
author(s). The Creative Commons license is, however, used in lieu of other
open hardware licenses in popular OSHW projects, such as the
Arduino<http://arduino>
.

link(s):
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

*Extra Links:*
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2011/02/open-source-hard-ware/
http://p2pfoundation.net/Open_Hardware
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-openhardware/index.html

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