A solid license
Morning.Star wrote 08/13/2017 at 09:00 • 0 pointsCan anyone recommend a good license I can use for my project/s? I'm on HaD so that others may use my ideas, so I'm not trying to restrict whats in them. After being Robbed by a celebrity maker outside of HaD who didnt even credit me, or indeed us, I think I need formal IP on what I'm doing.
I suppose an open source license is probably the best way to go but I have no idea how to go about it formally. Do I have to register? Is it free? Etc? ;-)
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Have a look at the Open Source Hardware Association's best practices guidelines. They have some license recommendations that they have researched and have had legal reviews of: https://www.oshwa.org/sharing-best-practices/ . As for myself, I normally use creative commons to cover my projects. There are a number of variations of creative commons that allow for both commercial and non-commercial usage. I've been successful in enforcing my licensing for non-commercial designs with people/companies who tried to use it commercially.... https://creativecommons.org/
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How about CERN's OHL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_Open_Hardware_Licence
https://www.ohwr.org/projects/cernohl/wiki
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I've decided on the Creative Commons License. This is sufficient along with the Prior Art contained in the work itself.
I could have done without a saddle, cheers Robin Johnson...
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Thanks guys, thats some useful advice.
A patent isnt really suitable; I'm not trying to stop others from using my ideas, or own them exclusively myself. I'm just switching from freely-available information to IP because it's been abused. An idea is formless, and it's (almost) flattering but I have spent significant time and energy developing Cardware's look as well as the geometry and having that displayed on national TV by someone claiming it's theirs is a definite no-no.
To prevent casual theft of IP like that, I know I need some kind of copyright on the work, so I'll have a good look through the links and see whats most appropriate.
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On TV? Wow. Do you have link?
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http://www.channel4.com/programmes/craft-it-yourself
Episode 2... The candle moulds came straight out of #Origaime (Cardware-bis)
Probably UK only, I doubt that the content is available in the EU right now ;-)
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Thanks. Can't watch it :-)
Do they only show it on the show or do they also provide PDFs with the pattern on their website or something?
Also, I don't know who these people are, are they legit makers? Or do they have a team, that prepares everything and the hosts just stand there claiming it's their work?
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I always use the MIT licence. No need to complicate things.
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I really recommend not using software licences on things that are not mainly software — like mechanical design files, PCB designs, schematics, documentation. Their wording doesn't fit that kind of projects. I would rather lean towards the open hardware licenses or even the creative commons.
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A license is a grant, a permit for use.
A license is not a law, so it is not automatically enforced by state, or by some other entity.
Anyway, if you need to pick a license, here are lots of types explained in plain English: https://tldrlegal.com/
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Well, yes and no.
Without an explicit permission nobody is allowed to use your work, and that is actually enforced by the state and international laws. Your work is protected by copyright law by default.
A license is a permission to use your work granted "in bulk" to a lot of people at once, so that you don't have to give all of them permissions individually. It's up to you what conditions you put on that permission (although some kinds of conditions might be illegal in your country).
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As I understand it, by publishing it globally on HaD it constitutes Prior Art under most legal systems.
That isnt a protection or a copyright but it does stand under law if I need to say, challenge a patent application on my work.
All I want to do is sign what I consider artwork - the fact that I'm using hardware, software, conceptual math and a range of materials to achieve it is kind of besides the point... As a painter, I sign the piece, as a musician I have to copyright it and as an engineer I have to patent it. So its bloody complicated. ;-)
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You don't need a license if you don't want other people to be able to use it without your permission. Anything you made is automatically yours under most jurisdictions in the western world. Publishing it in a third-party service like this one is a good way of leaving a proof for when you did it.
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Just a small addenda: There is a possibility for $150 to have a "pre-patent" in the US. The thinking is that it lets people having time to gather enough money for paying a real patent later (which costs also hundreds of thousand dollars initially plus an annual fee plus the cost of suing people that do not comply with the patent).
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Hi, its a declarative process, it costs nothing, everyone who is entitled can do it. Just add the license text on each textual document in your work.
The license that I prefer is the BSD/MIT but other people have other preferences depending on their needs and their context. For what I understand, you may prefer a license that forbids commercial use, for example creative commons, non commercial, no derivative [0]. Please note that with this license people can still use your work without asking for permission.
But it will not make it impossible for someone to use your work without complying with the license, for that you have to sue them based on the license. And it costs *lots* of money (hundreds thousands to millions Dollars) to sue a commercial entity.
[0] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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