Open Source Hardware Licenses

[David Quinn]

All

Does anyone have any experience open sourcing a hardware platform?

We're working an interesting solar hot water panel design and are keen to hack the traditional patent IP mess and business models to get the design into the hands of makers globally … and are some ways down this track.

Key piece is to open source the hardware.

I've been chatting with our IP guy. After sitting through his rant (actually started reciting Adam Smith to me - funny - but he is american) and the potential, apparently, that capitalism may very well end as a result of this action. Perhaps only his $600/hr fees. The conclusion is that it is relatively simple, and much like selecting a creative commons license.

Has anyone done this? Happy to shout the coffee to pick your brains on this.

-- 

David  |  104 Bond St  |  Dunedin

[Paul Campbell]

For my early designs (before "open source" was even a word) I just declared
designs to be in the public domain, people didn't know what to make of them.

Brian and I chose TAPR for the board for his robot
http://www.tapr.org/ohl.html

I used GPL2 for the Makerspace robot project (and lgpl for the source I
released for it)

My next OSHW project (a project for BurningMan) will probably also be GPL

I've chosen GPL for these largely because I'm lazy, not out of some great
personal preference one way or the other.

Also check out http://www.oshwa.org/

Paul

[Tim Penhey]

On 16/10/12 14:11, David Quinn wrote:
>> All
>>
>> Does anyone have any experience open sourcing a hardware platform?

Hi David,

While I'm not actually familiar with open sourcing hardware, I do know
that there are a number of companies online that have done exactly that.

I'm sure google could help here (in searching, not the actual open
sourcing :-).

Tim

[Reece Arnott]

On 16/10/12 14:11, David Quinn wrote:

>> All
>>
>> Does anyone have any experience open sourcing a hardware platform?
>>
>>

The Reprap project has just gone with GPLv2 - or later
(http://www.reprap.org/wiki/RepRapGPLLicence) with the rationale that
the design files are software so there is nothing extra needed but that
means that only the designs and not the actual hardware instance are
specifically licensed. In the US at least, electronic designs are
protected by patents, not copyright so there may well be issues in the
future.

But there was a group of people that have got together and tried to
hammer out what the meaning of "Open Source Hardware" actually is so you
can identify it by a logo: http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW and from that
a small number of hardware specific licenses have been created. The best
list I can find in 10 minutes of searching is the wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware which has a few broken
links but includes the two I've heard about: TAPR and CERN. Together
they are only a dozen pages to read so you can at least read them and
see what you think of them.


--
Reece Arnott
Dunedin
New Zealand

[drllau]

FYI: Solar can be cheaper than grid (peak power) see 

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/13/366764/utility-ceo-solar-cheaper-grid/

if you're interested, I can put you in touch with a manufacturer from HK who claims he can produce inexpensive solar hot water modules.

[Danyl Strype]

Kia ora koutou

David, I was curious about this myself, so I asked Richard Stallman
during the Q&A after his session on software patents. Here's what I
learned from that, and further research.

A patent can only be granted for an invention that is both non-obvious
and original. The originality test is failed if there is "prior art"
which publicly describes the invention, or something so similar to it
that the new design is an obvious variant of that described in the
"prior art".

So if you want to "open source" your hardware design, all you actually
have to do is publish documentation of it on a publicly-accessible
website (preferably under a CreativeCommons license ;), like
Appropedia.org, or opensourceecology.org. That description then
becomes "prior art", which will invalidate any patent on your
invention.

Having said that, I think there is value in standardising "open
hardware" license(s) and logo(s), just as standard licenses and logos
have emerged for free code/ open source software, so that potential
users know at a glance what conditions apply to using an "open"
design, or a product based on it. This may become more important when
it comes to getting designs manufactured by businesses, as they are
more conservative about risk, and will want to be sure they're not
going to end up liable for patent violation.

I'd be very keen to have a look at your solar designs sometime.

He mihi nui
Strypey

On 16 October 2012 14:11, David Quinn <david.a...@gmail.com> wrote:
> All
>
> Does anyone have any experience open sourcing a hardware platform?
>
> We're working an interesting solar hot water panel design and are keen to
> hack the traditional patent IP mess and business models to get the design
> into the hands of makers globally … and are some ways down this track.

--
Danyl Strype
Community Developer
Disintermedia.net.nz/strype

"Geeks are those who partake in our culture."
- .ISOcrates

"Uncomfortable alliances are not just necessary; they reflect and
speak to the tremendous possibility of our political moment."
- Harmony Goldberg and Joshua Kahn Russell
http://www.nationofchange.org/new-radical-alliances-new-era-1337004193

"Both Marxists and Chicago-school libertarian economists can agree
that free software is the best model."
- Keith C Curtis
http://keithcu.com/wordpress/?page_id=407