Best Open Source License For Hardware?

Posted by kdawson on Sunday February 10, 2008 @10:46AM from the not-a-core-in-the-world dept.

An anonymous reader writes "MIT recently open-sourced some really cool hardware designs, including an H.264 video decoder and an OFDM transceiver, under MIT's open source license (a.k.a. the X11 license). Now, the OpenCores FAQ recommends that people use either the GPL, LGPL, or modified BSD license; they do not mention the MIT license at all. And, according to the Free Software Foundation the GPL license can be used for hardware, but they do not list the LPGL, modified BSD, or MIT licenses as suitable for non-software. Would you or your company use hardware source-released under the MIT license? What's the best license to use for releasing hardware?"

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TAPR Open Hardware License. by vk2tds · 2008-02-10 11:26 · Score: 5, Interesting

This is the reason that TAPR created the Open Hardware License. It is available in two versions - the Open Hardware License, and the Non-Commercial Open Hardware License. The former is like GPL for hardware, and the latter provides a license that can be used to allow a company to open a design without giving their competitors the chance to use the design commercially.

It is designed to provide many protections including of the circuit designs and layouts, and patent protection.

Darryl

P.S. I am on the board of TAPR