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

[Steve Meier <smeier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think the printed circuit board itself can have a copyright.

Therefore, copies of it can not legally be made except for "fair use".
What "fair use" is for a pcb I have no idea. Certainly building and
selling copies would be a violation of US law. It would be up to the
copyright holder to seek an injunction against a direct copy.

Nothing would stop another from imitating ronja by drafting their own
schematics (not copying) and building boards from the new schematics.
That is nothing would stop them, unless there was a novel concept that
had been pattented, before the design was made public. The pattent owner
would have to ask a court for an injunction against the offending party.

Steve Meier




On Tue, 2006-12-19 at 12:17 -0600, John Griessen wrote:
>  > He didn't actually copy the schematic. He just built devices according to it,
>  > added his own mechanics, and sold it without giving the sources to the
>  > mechanics to that people. That's not illegal even is US then as you say.
>  >
>  > CL<
> 
> DJ Delorie wrote:
> >> That's not illegal even is US then as you say.
> > 
> > Right, unless you patented it.
> And then, the schematic would still only be copyright protected for its exact 
> look, not a functional copy.  Patent would protect only the novel concepts 
> implemented by the schematic.
> 
> John G
> 
> 
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