Re: gEDA-user: GPL like licenses for schematics and board layouts

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Can I use GPL license for schematics and pcb board layout too? Or are
> there other similar licenses, which are better suited for this stuff?

It's a difficult question, because making it pure GPL would mean that
each device you distributed would have to include all .sch, .sym, and
.pcb files so that others could create derivative or replacement
boards.

The FSF has noted that the GPL doesn't work well with physical
resources like circuit boards or other computer hardware, but they
haven't offered an alternate license to use instead.

Now, if you made the eda files GPL and the board "all rights reserved"
people could make new boards from the eda files but couldn't otherwise
copy the physical board.  That sort of lets them do what you'd expect,
without trying to apply the GPL to hardware.


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