Re: gEDA-user: GPL and BSD (was: strange build failure)

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I don't understand it. The symbols don't get into the hardware in any way.

Footprints do.  I think we intended the "use license" to be for
embedding in schematics and .pcb files, though.

Also, consider a cell phone with GPL'd software in it.  Does copyright
cover the cell phone?  It's hardware, but it includes copyrighted
works within it.  Can we say the same about the layout of a circuit
board?  I don't know.  Fair use might come into play, the "works"
might not be sufficiently unique, etc.  This is, IMHO, similar to the
issue of copyrighting fonts used for print.

> I don't believe hardware is covered by copyright law. Do you believe
> that?

Sheets of wood pulp with graphite patterns on them are covered.  Why
wouldn't sheets of fiberglass with copper patterns on them?

But I agree it would be a stretch to expect that.  I'd rather thing of
the "use license" as being "if you use these in your projects, this is
the license".  The dist-license covers, for example, transcribing the
geda libraries into eagle libraries.


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