Re: [oc] ask slashdot?

[Alex Holden <alex@linuxhacker.org>]

On Thu, 9 Mar 100, Graham Seaman wrote:
> There was some discussion of this with him on the hardlicense-discuss
> mailing list; you can see the archives at:
> http://collector.hscs.wmin.ac.uk/hardlicense/maillist.html

There are several other Open Hardware projects (such as PLEB and LART)
which have working hardware designs, but no suitable "open" license as
yet. GPL clearly doesn't apply at all well to hardware, and has some
virus-like qualities which (intentionally) makes it difficult to make
something which is part GPL and part some other license. I favour a MPL
with "convert to GPL" option for any software I write, as the MPL
explicitly allows linking MPLed code to code of any other license, but
requires modifications to the MPLed code itself to be contributed back.
This is a nice middle ground between the completely free aspect of *BSD
(the ones without the license clause, that is) and the more restrictive
GPL. The "convert to GPL" clause is to allow people to use MPLed code in a
GPL project- while the MPL allows linking to code under any license you
want, the GPL doesn't allow linking to MPLed code.

Perhaps you should try talking to the Mozilla people about whether they
could politely ask Netscape (AOL)'s IP lawyers what it would take to
modify the MPL so that it can also apply well to hardware descriptions...

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: Alex Holden (M1CJD)- Caver, Programmer, Land Rover nut, Radio Ham :
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