[cc-community] Seeking open hardware advice

Jeff Osier-Mixon jefro at jefro.net
Fri Aug 20 01:48:57 EDT 2010


Thanks, Carl.  I need to dig a little deeper also to find out what the
modifications were.

It was my impression from reading the CC website that CC was not considered
appropriate for hardware, though the site doesn't really specify why that
is.  I'd really like to figure it out, both to satisfy my own curiosity for
this project but also to help others sort through.  I hope to attend the
open hardware summit next month as well, where many of these issues will be
discussed.

For most of us, open source is open source, which really means that any
restrictions don't apply to me", and the impression is that only lawyers
care about the differences among creative commons, apache2, BSD, GPL, etc
etc.  In reality I know that isn't the case, and that we all should care
about such things.

thanks again for the help

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 11:02 PM, Carl <
shell_layer-creativecommons at yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> Hi, Jeff.
>
> The two actions that you suggested sound reasonable, but the
> 'slightly-modified BSD-like' licence is ringing alarm bells. May I suggest
> instead using an unmodified version of a widely-accepted licence? CC-BY
> might suit the purpose. The proliferation of many "same same but different"
> licences is a Bad Thing.
>
> Carl
>
> --- On Fri, 20/8/10, Jeff Osier-Mixon <jefro at jefro.net> wrote:
>
> From: Jeff Osier-Mixon <jefro at jefro.net>
> Subject: [cc-community] Seeking open hardware advice
> To: cc-community at lists.ibiblio.org
> Received: Friday, 20 August, 2010, 10:45 AM
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am trying to find out the logical differences among open-source licenses,
> partly because I should know after this many years in the field, and partly
> because I would like to advise a hardware project on the best methods for
> both licensing and copyrighting their materials.
>
>
> The project is a small ARM-based single-board computer (
> http://beagleboard.org).  The intent of the provider is that the board be
> "totally open", meaning OK to download the plans and modify, even to create
> commercial products, with attribution.  They prefer that their logo not be a
> part of any derived works.  That is basically it.  These guys are TI
> engineers doing this project on their own time and get
>  nothing from it other than the joy of helping to spread embedded
> systems love to the world.
>
> The website from which these materials flows also has a CC-BY-SA logo on
> the home page. There is a set of detailed design drawings (with no copyright
> marks) and
>  a system reference guide (with a CC-BY-SA logo on the front).  The
> "license" page itself contains just the disclaimer portion of a
> slightly modified BSD license, although as I said, that license does not
>  appear in the materials themselves.  The maintainers have considered and
> rejected the new Open Hardware License due to clause 3, which requires
> derived works to maintain the same license - they don't want to put that
> restriction on the board.
>
>
> So, in other words, the docs & materials are CC-BY-SA while the IP that
> defines the board is BSD-like.  From what I have read, I believe what they
> need to do is:
>
> (1) put the CC-BY-SA logo on every page of all materials, drawings,
> documentation, etc. and on every page of the website
>
>
> (2) state in the front of each set of materials, drawings, documentation,
> etc. the language of the BSD-like license and what is covered by it - the
> specific ideas as expressed in the drawings and materials
>
> I would really like to help them get their
> licensing correct as the first step to forming a "real" dot-org.  Am I on
> the right path?
>
> thanks
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>
> _______________________________________________
> cc-community mailing list
> cc-community at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> cc-community mailing list
> cc-community at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-community/attachments/20100820/7eb3ca1e/attachment.html 


More information about the cc-community mailing list