Re: Hardware license

[Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu>]

Rich Walker <rw@shadow.org.uk> wrote:
> > Rich Walker <rw@shadow.org.uk> writes:
> > 
> > > We've been putting together some robot-related software and hardware. We
> > > want to release this with a DFSG-compliant license set. For the
> > > software, GPL, no problems. For the hardware we propose to include .pcb
> > > files for pcb, .sch files for gschem, and .asm files for the PIC
> > > firmware. What licenses are appropriate for hardware releases?
> > 
> > If it's got source code of some sort, then it would seem to me that
> > the GPL is just fine.  Alternatively, you could just use a BSD-style
> > license.
> 
> Umm; the .sch and .pcb files are not really source code; they are more
> like .pdf files. Also, I'm using a GPL rather than BSD license for the
> traditional philosophical reasons: this is an addition to the commons,
> rather than a gift to the public domain.

If the .sch and .pcb files are not the preferred form for making
modifications, then what is?  Could you distribute that?  In that
case, you could use a slightly modified GPL, where you replace "object
code" with "non-source derivative works".

Regards,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu