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

[Igor2 <igor2@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006, DJ Delorie wrote:

<snip>

>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.

Interpreting a license is always a problem. It's a problem for programmers
since they are not lawyers to understand all the legal parts to infinite
depths and it's a problem for lawyers because they don't understand every
little thecnical part. There are always gray zones depending on common
sense and intentions.

A good rule of thumb about GPL may be to check what GNU or FSF says,
recommends or suggests or even how they interpret their own licenses. For
this case, they have a point in thier faq
(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLOutput):

"Is there some way that I can GPL the output people get from use of my
program? For example, if my program is used to develop hardware designs,
can I require that these designs must be free?

In general this is legally impossible; copyright law does not give you
any say in the use of the output people make from their data using your
program."

This clearly applies to PCB but still it's a question how a schematic
symbol is related to the final hardware product. Maybe it is worth to ask
FSF (in case the symbol and/or footprint is under the GPL).

Igor2

P.S. DJ, I tried to send you a mail in private about the challenge boards
but your mail server seems to drop my mail considering it a spam. I use
the same email address and host as for this mail.



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