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Open Hardware Licenses - P2P Foundation Wiki wiki.p2pfoundation.net Jun 17, 2015 12 facts
referenceThe TAPR Open Hardware License is based on the GNU GPL but addresses the legal differences between hardware (patents) and software (copyright). It forbids any other license from preventing the rights to copy and modify documentation or to make and use products made using that documentation.
claimThe TAPR Open Hardware License (Version 1.0), published in May 2007, is specifically targeted at open hardware and utilizes both copyright and a mutual patent immunity clause.
perspectiveThe author of the Open Manufacturing list post believes that hardware has been ignored by open source legal experts due to the differences in skill and mindset between the patent and copyright legal worlds.
claimThe GNU General Public License (GPL) relaxes copyright restrictions to provide users with more freedom to use copyrighted information than they would otherwise have.
claimPonoko allows users to choose between full copyright and Creative Commons licenses for digital fabrication designs.
claimThingiverse allows users to choose between standard copyright, Creative Commons licenses, GPL, or public domain for digital designs of physical objects.
quoteArduino and Freeduino developers acknowledge that Creative Commons licenses do not apply to physical production, stating: 'You don’t need to give attribution on the physical products that you might make with these files, as copyright in general, and CC2.5 in particular, do not apply to physical objects.'
claimIn the United States, it is only considered illegal to violate trademark, copyright, and patent law.
quoteBruce Perens stated: "In promoting Open Hardware, it is important not to unintentionally deceive designers regarding the extent to which their licenses actually can control their designs. Under U.S. law, and law in many other places, copyright does not apply to electronic designs. Patents do. The result is that an Open Hardware license can in general be used to restrict the plans but probably not the manufactured devices or even restatements of the same design that are not textual copies of the original."
claimCreative Commons and GPL licenses apply only to works eligible for copyright, such as theater plays, pictures, films, and musical works, and do not apply to the underlying ideas presented in a file.
claimInformation rights can be structured to last for a fixed number of years, for the duration of the creator's life, for the duration of a specific copyright term like Mickey Mouse, or for the duration of the government that granted the rights.
perspectiveJonathan Kuniholm asserts that open source software has a clear legal basis in the copyright of source code and executables, whereas open hardware lacks a clear analogue to software source code and the associated copyright protections.
Open-source license - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 10 facts
claimUnless an original work is in the public domain, a derivative work can only be distributed with the permission of every copyright holder.
claimMost countries, including the United States, have created copyright laws in line with the Berne Convention, which assign a copyright whenever a work is released in any fixed format.
claimWhen a copyright expires, the work enters the public domain and becomes freely available to anyone.
claimPublic domain content can be used in any project because there is no copyright claim, but code acquired under license terms cannot be waived into the public domain.
claimBecause the law prohibits software redistribution without permission from the copyright holder, courts treat the act of redistribution as acceptance of the open-source license terms, which can include attribution or source code provisions.
accountIn the early history of computing, software was often given away with hardware and was not covered by copyright, effectively placing it in the public domain.
claimThe European Court of Justice noted in the 2012 SAS Institute case that ideas and principles which underlie computer program interfaces are not protected by copyright.
claimModified versions of an original work are considered derivative works, and the creator of the modifications holds the copyright to those specific changes.
claimA public-domain-equivalent license, such as Creative Commons CC0, provides a waiver of copyright claims into the public domain along with a permissive software license as a fallback.
claimUnder United States copyright law, the creator or their employer holds the copyright to an original work and has the exclusive right to make copies, release modified versions, distribute copies, perform publicly, or display the work publicly.
Open Source Licenses: Definition, Types, and Comparison solutionshub.epam.com Feb 3, 2023 4 facts
claimWorks enter the public domain when a copyright has expired or when the creator chooses to relinquish their rights to the work.
claimCopyright restricts the use and distribution of a work, granting the creator exclusive rights to use, sell, and distribute the work.
referenceThe MIT License, created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, requires users to preserve copyright and license notices but does not expressly grant patent rights.
claimPublic domain works are not restricted by copyright and can be used, modified, and distributed without restriction.
A Quick and Dirty Guide to Open Source Hardware Licensing michaelweinberg.org Oct 6, 2017 4 facts
claimDocumentation is a required component of the open source hardware definition and is covered by copyright, for which the author recommends applying a Creative Commons license.
claimOpen source hardware licensing is complex because hardware is composed of multiple elements covered by different types of intellectual property, unlike open source software which is typically covered by a single copyright.
claimPhysical hardware elements may be protected by copyright or patents, and if protected by copyright, Creative Commons licenses are recommended, though those with Non-Commercial restrictions are incompatible with the open source hardware definition.
claimSoftware components of hardware are covered by copyright, and the author recommends applying an OSI-compliant license to them.
What Is Open Source Software? - IBM ibm.com 4 facts
claimThe GPL copyleft license functions as a quasi-public-domain intellectual property framework with legally enforceable restrictions imposed by the original copyright holder to protect against others’ later claims of restrictive ownership.
claimOpen source licenses are categorized as 'permissive' (allowing users to copyright their own works) or 'protective' (like copyleft).
claimProprietary or closed source software, such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Illustrator, differs from Open Source Software (OSS) because the copyright holder restricts end users from editing, enhancing, or redistributing the product.
accountThe classification of software code as copyrightable material in the mid-1970s facilitated the growth of the independent software publishing industry, which relied on proprietary source code as its primary revenue source.
Open Source Software: What is OSS? - Sonatype sonatype.com 3 facts
claimProprietary software licenses support business models that generate revenue by selling software, similar to how copyright supports authors and publishers who sell books.
claimWhen software code is first written, the copyright is owned by the developer or their employer.
claimPublic domain software has no copyright restrictions, meaning the author has explicitly waived their rights so anyone can modify or redistribute the code without conditions.
Legal aspects of Open Source Software: What makes it different ... en.havelpartners.blog Jul 24, 2024 3 facts
claimIn the Czech Republic, neither personal nor economic copyrights can be waived, meaning software provided as a 'free work' is legally interpreted as a license granted by the author in a broad scope.
claimPublic Domain Software is software that is deprived of copyright, allowing for unrestricted use, modification, and distribution.
claimIn some legal systems, such as the United States, the absolute waiver of copyright in software is a common practice.
What are Open Source Licenses and How Do They Work? blackduck.com 2 facts
claimSoftware is typically protected by copyright, which requires permission from the creator or copyright holder for use, unless the software is in the public domain.
claimUnlicensed code is not automatically in the public domain and retains copyright protections by default, meaning users must obtain explicit permission to use it and should treat it as proprietary code.
Open Hardware Licenses - The Turing Way book.the-turing-way.org 2 facts
What Is Open Source Software and Why Use OSS? coursera.org Dec 31, 2025 2 facts
claimPublic domain licenses for software have no copyright, allowing users to use, copy, distribute, or change the work as they wish.
claimFreeware and open source software differ in that freeware is protected by copyright and does not provide access to source material, whereas open source software does.
Open-source software - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
claimBoth permissive and copyleft FOSS licenses provide a broad grant of copyright rights, require that recipients preserve copyright notices, and mandate that a copy of the license be provided to recipients with the code.
Software Supply Chain Resilience in 2025: A Comparative Analysis ... ijisc.com Dec 24, 2025 1 fact
procedureAuthors submitting papers to the International Journal of Information Security and Cybercrime agree to transfer the copyright of their articles to the Romanian Association for Information Security Assurance upon acceptance.
What Is Open Source Software Licensing? - Coursera coursera.org Dec 9, 2025 1 fact
claimPermissive licenses provide the broadest rights, allowing users to use, modify, and distribute software, and sometimes sell copies, provided the original copyright is listed.
Open Source Hardware Definition - P2P Foundation Wiki wiki.p2pfoundation.net Feb 9, 2019 1 fact
claimUnder U.S. law and the laws of many other jurisdictions, copyright does not apply to electronic designs, whereas patents do.
Understanding and Complying with Open Source Software Licenses lathropgpm.com 1 fact
claimAn offer of indemnity may not be sufficient to mitigate the loss of intellectual property rights, such as copyright, patent, or trade secrets, in business-critical assets resulting from open source compliance failures.
Open Source Licensing Explained: A Comprehensive Guide - TuxCare tuxcare.com Oct 21, 2024 1 fact
referenceCommon restrictions in open source licenses include the retention of copyright by original owners, specific patent rights, requirements for attribution of original authors, and mandates that derivative works use the same license (often found in copyleft licenses).
What is open hardware? | Opensource.com opensource.com 1 fact
claimHardware designs and inventions are subject to copyright and patent law, which open source hardware projects use to make designs publicly accessible.
Open Source Licenses: Types and Comparison - Snyk snyk.io 1 fact
claimThe Berkeley Source Distribution (BSD) License is a permissive open source license that preserves license notices and copyrights while allowing larger or licensed works to be distributed without source code and under different license terms.
Free and open-source software - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
claimCopyright is the primary legal mechanism that Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) authors use to ensure license compliance, though legislation, patents, and trademarks also have implications.
Open Source Hardware - Devopedia devopedia.org Jun 3, 2019 1 fact
claimCreative works are protected by copyright, while useful or functional works are protected by patents.
What is Open Source? - Revenera revenera.com 1 fact
claimThe MIT License is a permissive license that allows extensive freedom to use, modify, and distribute software, provided the original copyright notice is included.