[Discuss] Publish OSHW with CC0?

Mastro Gippo gipmad at gmail.com
Thu Oct 30 12:42:04 UTC 2014


I released some of my projects under the WTFPL, check it out.

MG
On Oct 30, 2014 1:28 PM, "Michael Weinberg" <mweinberg at publicknowledge.org>
wrote:

> I'll preface this by saying that I don't know the details of your friend's
> project so his mileage may vary and this is not legal advice.  However, a
> few high level points worth keeping in mind:
>
> - CC0 (and all CC licenses) are copyright licenses.  Copyright is a
> default-on type of protection, so some sort of dedication (like CC0) is
> necessary if you want your copyright-protected work to be in the public
> domain.
>
> - Copyright does not protect everything. Specifically (in this case),
> copyright does not protect functional objects.  Functional objects fall
> within the scope of patent.  Unlike copyright, patent is a default-off type
> of protection.  If you  make a functional object, it is in the public
> domain automatically unless you protect it with a patent.  You don't need
> to take any additional steps to put it into the public domain.
>
> - What does this mean?  If I make a catapult, any non-functional designs
> on the catapult (skulls and whatnot) are protected by copyright.  Probably
> so are my schematics for the catapult.  But the catapult itself is not
> protected by copyright and is default in the public domain.  Putting a  CC0
> license on my schematic gives people the ability to copy the schematics
> freely, but has no impact on their ability to copy the catapult itself
> (because it is already in the public domain).
>
> -I don't know what "the public domain mark" is, but if it is only
> descriptive I don't know why it couldn't be applied equally to works that
> entered the public domain "naturally" (either because the copyright expired
> or because they were never protected by copyright/patent in the first
> place) or through some sort of dedication like CC0.
>
> On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 3:41 AM, Antoine, as a contact of a free
> smallwindturbine project <smallwindturbineproj.contactor at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > to release an electronics device
>>
>> My understanding is: as your friend wants a tangible things and its
>> upstream and downstream manufacturing chain to be into public domain
>> (or equivalent), then, a CC licence can not really match.
>>
>> From my understanding, using a open licence specially designed for
>> tangible things would be preferable: TAPR or CERN-OHL.
>>
>> Don't you think ?
>>
>> Freely,
>>
>> Antoine
>>
>> 2014-10-30 6:13 UTC+01:00, Eric Thompson <eric at lowvoltagelabs.com>:
>> > I don't recall exactly what he said during the interview but I seem to
>> > remember that Ian from Dangerous Prototypes talked about this during an
>> > interview on The Amp Hour podcast.
>> >
>> > If you look at the Bus Pirate documentation, it lists the PCB art and
>> > Firmware as CC-0.
>> > http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate#License
>> >
>> > - Eric
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 5:20 PM, Drew Fustini <pdp7pdp7 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hi, a friend at my hackerspace here in Chicago wants to release an
>> >> electronics device he's designed as OSHW.  It is a pure analog system
>> >> with no firmware.
>> >>
>> >> He doesn't care about attribution, commercial use, derivatives or
>> >> copyleft restrictions.   He said he basically wants to make the design
>> >> public domain.  My understanding is that Creative Commons CC0 is
>> >> preferable to public domain.
>> >>
>> >> Anyone have thoughts on releasing hardware designs as CC0?
>> >> Is there are better option given he doesn't want to reserve any rights?
>> >>
>> >> thanks!
>> >> drew
>> >> http://keybase.io/pdp7
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> discuss mailing list
>> >> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>> >> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>> >>
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> discuss mailing list
>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Weinberg, Vice President, PK Thinks
> 202-861-0020 (o) | @mweinbergPK
>
> Public Knowledge | @publicknowledge | www.publicknowledge.org
> 1818 N St. NW, Suite 410 | Washington, DC 20036 | CFC # 12259
>
> Promoting a Creative & Connected Future.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> discuss mailing list
> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.oshwa.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20141030/b94a8564/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the discuss mailing list