Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
An open license can also be used to force others to share. Remember, open licenses are
built upon a legal right: copyright. That foundation allows creators to sue anyone who
does not comply with the conditions of the license for copyright infringement. Including a
“share alike” provision in a CC license is not a polite request that anyone who builds upon
the work contribute back to the commons; rather, it creates a legal requirement. This legal
requirement helps bring people and companies that do not care about building a commons
into the world of sharing. If they want to benefit from the commons by copying, building
upon, or integrating the commons into their own work, the open license can legally com-
pel them to add to it as well.
Adding hardware to the mix makes things a bit more complicated. The legal require-
ment that forms the foundation for GPL and CC licenses is copyright. For things that fit
easily within the scope of copyright—music, movies, photographs, and so on—this does
not pose a problem. But for things that do not fit neatly within the scope of copy-
right—hardware being the most important example in this topic—that copyright basis for
traditional open licenses can complicate things.
The fact that hardware is not protected by copyright does not mean that it is impossible
to license. It just means that the process is not as straightforward as adding an open li-
cense to the design. In thinking about licensing open source hardware, it is critical to un-
derstand what you are actually licensing—and what you do not have any power to license.
Copyright, Patent, and Trademark: Rights That You Might Be
Able to License
Before considering the parts of a given project that could be licensed in an open source
hardware way, you must first understand a little bit about the different types of intellectual
property. Being able to identify the contours of each will help you to understand which
rights you might actually have and how you might want to license them.
Copyrights and patents are designed as inducements to create. The theory is that, in re-
turn for spending the time and energy creating something and sharing it with the world,
the creator receives a limited monopoly on that thing from the government. Although they
are often lumped together, copyright, patent, and trademark are actually complementary
sets of rights.
Copyright
Copyright
is a type of intellectual property that most people encounter on a daily basis
protects and how a work qualifies for protection.
