[Discuss] New OSHWA post up - Legal Notes

Matt Maier blueback09 at gmail.com
Thu Dec 12 00:52:31 UTC 2013


Not just a hobby, primarily a hobby. It's something most people do in their
free time (after the workday or during retirement). There are several
examples of successful businesses that release their hardware design source
files openly. But there are at least 100x as many examples of people/groups
that release open source hardware but are not businesses. Thus, the
majority of open source hardware work is not intended to generate a profit.

But that's because most developers do it for fun/pride. It's not because
most developers want to set up an alternative economic system. Personally,
I don't think the idea of an alternative economic system makes any sense.
Open source is merely a way to develop technology; its scope is extremely
limited. The impact of cheaper/better technology could be far reaching, but
even that wouldn't come close to setting up an alternative to economics. It
might have an impact on the scale of activity, but I don't see anything
fundamental changing.

Feel free to advocate for whatever you want. I don't speak for anyone other
than myself. I advocate for open source because it improves technology
faster and I think technology is vital to everyone's future.

For what it's worth, I do see open source hardware as an ecosystem, like
how RepRap was based on Arduino.
- Matt


On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 4:12 PM, yahya <yahya.tawil at gmail.com> wrote:

> How could we advocate OSW as an ecosystem and a economic alternative
> system and then we say is just a hobby !
>
>
> with all respect
> Yahya
>
>
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