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Re: Hardware license



Hi

On Monday 02 December 2002 21:04, Walter Landry wrote:
> Rich Walker <rw@shadow.org.uk> wrote:
> > Terry Hancock <hancock@anansispaceworks.com> writes:
Hi

> > Yes; I'm currently looking at that and the OpenIPCore
> > license.
> >
> > http://www.opencores.org/OIPC/OHGPL.shtml.
> >
> > Are these both compliant licenses?
>
> The OpenIPCore license is a more of a copyleft, so you'll
> probably be happier with it.  Looking through the license, it
> looks mostly ok.

There are some points about it that strike me. Maybe I'm 
completely wrong about it... 

 1. This license is only a draft. Is it a good idea to use it
    already? Future versions could be incompatible with it.

 2. Is this license GPL compatible? In the future, digital
    devices will propably use the GPLed F-CPU, so this might be
    a big problem, then. 

 3. AFAIK, the copyleft in the GPL is not strong enough to
    prevent that a chip that has been built from a GPLed design
    is bought by a non-licensee, and resold, soldered into a
    non-free circuit. This is like creating a non-free artwork 
    out of Debian CDs, but far more severe. I am not sure if
    there is a possible strategy about this at all, and what the
    OHGPL is doing about this.

 4. I can't find the phrase that allows distribution of a
    modified version. 

 5. Paragraph 3, which forbids selling but allows a fee OTOH,
    seems to be against the wording of DFSG 1. Is there a
    license that has been classified DFSG-free which uses a
    similar wording?

cu,
Thomas
 }:o{#



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