Well this gets rather complex rather quickly if you want to look at the
legal aspects of things.
There is IP (Intellectual Property) inherent in many stages of a Hardware
design. All of which is clearly covered by copyright laws / patents etc.
There is also the issue of "intent" of use, or distribution.
For instance one could:
1) Develop an HDL design of a CPU along with associated clue logic
that defines an entire computer.
From this one could "OPEN" the specification from a
programming point of view to allow anyone to freely develop software for
said platform while keeping the details of the Hardware design under
wraps/licensing. One could also setup a distribution mechanism for "OPEN"
type development; while still having a distribution that sells the end
platform to commercial users should they wish to purchase it rather than as
an unsupported product.
OR,
One could open the HDL design up for "OPEN" non-commercial use to
allow anyone who had the resources available to them to build the design in
FPGA or the like and construct the end computer themselves. While this is
more "open" in some ways, I would argue that it leads to a situation where
FEWER people have potential access to the end product. There are not a
large number of people who have the resources to develop something from an
HDL description into a final working product.
Now which is more "Desirable" or "Better"?
Not sure I'm capable of answering that one, although I'm quite certain I
could argue for either..
--------------
Perhaps the aim shouldn't be so much to "DEFINE" what Open Hardware is, but
"DEFINE" the "GOALS" or "INTENT" of the Open Hardware Foundation.
Clearing set forth what OHF is ABOUT fostering, and what their INTENT is.
Not so much setting up rules about what methods or levels of "Openness" are
OKAY, but more about what OHF is about and where they are headed..
My 0.02$ for now.
Jonathan Smith
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