[cc-community] Open Hardware Licence

John Hendrik Weitzmann jhweitzmann at mx.uni-saarland.de
Thu May 7 12:32:52 EDT 2009


hi,

> 1. Hopefully someone will tell me that I am wrong in my assumption that the
> real world doesn't lend itself to the ideology of open source hardware.
> Copyleft has problems with the norm of patent and even though there   
> are a small
> amount of open source hardware projects their validity is still to
> be tested.

open access _can_ work with technological designs, but at the moment  
you either have descriptions under GFDL/GPL + some assertions and  
promises (which produces a legal mess) or tailored public licenses  
(which prevents standard terms to emerge) or some weird things like  
IANG.

I opt for a Tech Commons License for any tech design that is eligible  
for a patent or as a utility model. All specific attempts relating to  
IT hardware or 'green patents only' fall short of what could be  
achieved.

(see artcle in forthcoming book "Intelligent Multimedia - Sharing  
Creative Works in a Digital World", to be printed in june 2009 by EPAP)

> 2. As I say I am unsure of copyleft to specific hardware layouts, but
> references to the network architecture in terms of implementation and
> layout are more likely?

copyleft works with anything copyrighted, i.e.
- creative works
- databases
- software code
- micro ship layout

it does not work with
- ideas, concepts, business models
- anything protectable through register rights only (inventions,  
technological solutions, industrial processes, DNA snippets, ...)

> I am quite prepared to open my IP with the goal of any usage  
> providing  reference to the original source. I am passionate about  
> energy saving
> and also have a dislike to corporate IP but the main thing is that an
> open source collaborative effort could accelerate a common standard in
> a confused arena. Just to kick-start the idea is of importance and I
> would greatly appreciate any help.

the soundest way IMO would be to simply go _very_ public with the  
general concept in a very quick manner. Once your design is  
intentionally communicated publicly (in journals, on expert blogs, at  
trade fairs) it enters 'state of the art', can't be re-appropriated  
and copyleft is no longer needed. The attribution is another thing.  
Best for that would probably be to publish both general and detailed  
descriptions under a standard copyright license that preserves  
attribution. That of course only covers the attribution as author of  
the descriptions, not as inventor of the design, but under most  
jurisdiction you are entitled to be named as the inventor even without  
any patent or other certificate (at least in Germany you would be).

bye,
John CC-DE



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