On 04/03/2016 03:38 AM, Pen-Yuan Hsing wrote: > > Finally, RMS said that since making copies of hardware is costly > compared to software, free hardware is not as urgent of an issue right > now. That might be true, but I propose that since technology will > progress and one day copying hardware might become quick, it *is* a good > idea to set a good precedent and start a trend asap to ensure that > hardware designs will be free. > > Love to hear your critiques.
The real question is not if new technology can be patented, in my opinion, but if existing patents apply to libre hardware designs. I suppose so, and this severely limits the amount of things which can be built. Also, is there a database/index for libre hardware designs like the Free Software Directory? If not, there should be. There are dozens of Arduino-based libre designs out there, for example. I also think there should be some equivalent to the FSF for hardware - including firmware, which has always been the elephant in the room when it comes to free software, and the poor (or inexistent) performance of free drivers has prevented GNU/Linux (and free distros in particular) from gaining mainstream adoption. Just think about how many WiFi cards require blobs (I don't think I've ever come across one which doesn't).
