Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Most online repositories also include issue trackers, which are a good way to
keep track of the bugs in and future enhancements planned for your software in
a way that others can view and comment on. Some include wikis, which can be
good places to document your project.
As an alternative to an online repository, you might develop your project in
an online CAD tool (like Upverter). Or, you could share your files on a site like
Thingiverse.
Licensing Your Designs
Note
In no way should this section be considered legal advice. Due to
the complexities of hardware licenses and the governing law for
hardware being patent law, if you are thinking of using a hard-
ware license, the safest way to understand your protections
would be talking to a lawyer. There is more information about
licensing in Chapter 3 of this topic.
While licensing is a complex subject, use of licenses is an important way of
signaling how others can and should use your work. By explicitly applying an
open-source license to your hardware design files and other documentation, you
make it clear that others can copy and modify them. When licensing your pro-
ject, keep in mind that someone who makes a derivative of your hardware will
probably also want to build on your software, instructions, and other document-
ation; you should license not just the hardware design files but also these other
elements of your project.
Note that copyright (on which most licenses are based) doesn't apply to
hardware itself, only to the design files for it—and, then, only to the elements
which constitute “original works of authorship” (in U.S. law) and not the under-
lying functionality or ideas. Therefore, it's not entirely clear exactly which legal
protections are or aren't afforded by the use of a copyright-based license for
hardware design files—but they're still important as a way of making clear the
ways in which you want others to use your designs.
There are two main classes of open-source or free-software licenses: co-
pyleft (or viral) licenses, which require that derivatives be licensed under the
same terms; and permissive licenses, which allow others to make modifications
without releasing them as open-source hardware. Note that the definition of
Search WWH ::




Custom Search