While Software in the Public Interest was founded to foster the development of both open hardware and open software, most of our recent activity has been related to software. Open hardware development projects exist, however, and the non-profit organization TAPR is now working on a pair of new licenses intended to foster collaborative hardware development.
John Ackermann, N8UR, is the author of these new licenses. I've known John for years and have worked on various projects with him. He asked me to review early drafts, and has done a great job of integrating the feedback that I and his other early reviewers provided. I invite SPI's members to review these new licenses, and offer feedback during a public comment period that continues until March 7th, 2007. I hope those members of SPI whose interests include hardware development, and/or the nuances of license texts, will take time to review these new licenses and provide feedback during the public comment period. See http://www.tapr.org/OHL for details. Of these two new license, the TAPR Open Hardware License is the one that should be of greatest interest to SPI members. Pending the results of the comment period, I believe this is a license that SPI should endorse in some way once it is released. The alternative TAPR Noncommercial Hardware License is identical to the OHL but limits Products to noncommercial use only. Bdale _______________________________________________ Spi-general mailing list Spi-general@lists.spi-inc.org http://lists.spi-inc.org/listinfo/spi-general