[Discuss] Publish OSHW with CC0?

Thu Oct 30 16:29:10 UTC 2014

Just to clarify, if you consider "the catapult itself" to essentially be
its functional use, Michael's point about patent vs. copyright is totally
accurate. But there are many things which could be considered to be part of
a hardware project which go beyond what is patentable (its functional use),
and encompass things both which are covered by copyright (like schematics,
or firmware) and sometimes things which are not protected under any
intellectual property regime -- like things which cannot be protected by
patent, such as a catapult, because they're too old and/or their patents
have expired.

The CERN Open Hardware License, for example, does not mention patents at
all, and relies on the necessity of transmitting copyrighted design files.
But just like a piece of open source software could be reverse-engineered
by examining it and understanding how it works, a piece of open source
hardware could be copied directly as well.

Above all, the different licenses and approaches demonstrate that there are
different legal perspectives on how airtight hardware licensing can be;
just as there were when free software licensing began.

Jeff

On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 11:25 AM, alicia <amgibb at gmail.com> wrote:

> Best example of a catapult yet. Especially the part about the skulls.
>
> WTFPL looks pretty cool - not saying you made this claim, but to be clear
> for everyone on the list - that will still only protect your designs and
> does not apply to the hardware itself.
>
> Cheers
> Alicia
>
> On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 8:42 AM, Tiberius Brastaviceanu <
> tiberius.brastaviceanu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Interesting discussion, I learned something here.
>> Within the www.sensorica.co network we have chosen to share hardware
>> designs with CC BY.
>>
>> I think it depends on your goals. If the guy doesn't care about what
>> might happen with his hardware, I guess it's fine. I like the spirit of
>> WTFPL.
>>
>> I look at things from an economic perspective and I ask myself how to
>> stimulate economic development, which means to increase the efficiency of
>> processes like innovation, production, distribution... I work around
>> commons-based peer production and I think that in order to stimulate
>> innovation we need to let others modify and remix our work, but in order
>> for this to function properly, we also need to put in place a feedback
>> mechanism. This is why I think it is important to be able to find out who
>> is using the design and what improvements others have made on it. The share
>> alike clause is also important, because we don't want someone to modify or
>> remix and close. We want this new economy based on sharing to spread,
>> therefore it needs a viral aspect.
>>
>> So for me it's more than an individual thing. I do have a mission and I
>> want things to fall into place in a way that encourage the emergence and
>> development of commons-based peer production. I want us, as a global
>> society, to become more effective and efficient.
>>
>> See more on the open value network model.
>> http://valuenetwork.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 30, 2014 at 8:42 AM, Mastro Gippo <gipmad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 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
>>>>> >> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> >>
>>>>> >
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> 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
>>>>
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>>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> t!b! <http://www.google.com/profiles/tiberius.brastaviceanu>
>> co-founder of SENSORICA <http://www.sensorica.co>,
>> an open, decentralized and self-organizing
>> value network (an open enterprise)
>>
>> founder of Multitude Project
>> <https://sites.google.com/site/multitude2008/>
>>
>> Google Profile <https://plus.google.com/117593809719446924575/about>
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>>
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