Towards a Functional Licence for Open Hardware

Authors

  • Andrew Katz Partner, Moorcrofts LLP

Keywords:

Open Hardware, Open Source Hardware, Licensing, Copyleft

Abstract

Open hardware lags open source software in maturity. The two main licences assert a form of copyleft. This paper argues that copyleft's applicabilty to hardware is probelmatic, and concludes by proposing a simpler non-copyleft licence, based on Apache 2.0, for hardware.

Author Biography

  • Andrew Katz, Partner, Moorcrofts LLP
    Andrew Katz studied Natural Sciences and Law at Cambridge University where he graduated with honours in 1989. In 1991 he was called to the Bar, and in 1993 requalified as a solicitor. He moonlighted as a programmer during his studies at Bar School, programming in Turbo Pascal. In 1991 he became an accredited NeXT developer. He has released software under the GPL. He is currently a partner at Moorcrofts LLP, a boutique law firm in England's Thames Valley and advises a wide range of businesses on free and open source related issues. He has lectured and published widely on the subject.

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Published

2012-05-31

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2012)

Section

Articles

License

The most restrictive licence we will accept for submission is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) SPDX identifier CC-BY-4.0

How to Cite

Towards a Functional Licence for Open Hardware. (2012). Journal of Open Law, Technology & Society, 4(1), 41-62. https://www.jolts.world/index.php/jolts/article/view/69