Re: gEDA-user: licensing (GPL or otherwise) for hardware?

[Karel Kulhavy <clock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Dec 13, 2006 at 12:30:57PM -0700, Andy Peters wrote:
> On Dec 13, 2006, at 7:12 PM, Michael Sokolov wrote:
> 
> >Andy Peters <devel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >>Just to clarify: if I use GPLed or BSD-licensed tools to develop
> >>hardware, as well as using GPLed symbols/footprints, am I obligated
> >>to open-source the hardware design (the schematic, the PCB layout)?
> >
> >The tools do not impose this obligation, but your morality should.
> >
> >>Common sense says no, but the degrees of freedom (hah hah) in open-
> >>source licenses vary greatly, and if I cannot keep my designs
> >>proprietary, then I can't use the tools.
> >
> >Regardless of what tools you use, if you keep your designs proprietary
> >you are a bad guy and will burn in hell after you die (which may be
> >accelerated if you get tried and rightfully executed by a lynch mob  
> >for
> >your crime of withholding software source code and/or hardware designs
> >from The People).
> 
> Except my employer, and any freelance clients for whom I work, would  
> object, in the strongest possible (read: legal) terms, if I were to  
> simply give away, to anyone who asks, the work for which they pay me.
> 
> I realize that open source is a religious matter for some, but guess  
> what: I work for a living.   And when you're doing hardware design,  
> where the capital costs of a project can be quite high (gotta buy  
> parts, make and stuff PCBs, build enclosures, meet applicable safety  
> specs, etc), as opposed to software development where the costs are  
> in time alone, the notion of giving away a completed, ready-to-build  
> design is silly.

Now I understand why free software developer always give away incomplete work
:)

CL<
> 
> It's hard to tell if you're yankin' my chain (thus earning Larry's  
> Score: +5, Funny) or not.
> 
> -a
> 
> 
> 
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