Andy - On Wed, Dec 13, 2006 at 11:15:12AM -0700, Andy Peters wrote: > Just to clarify: if I use GPLed or BSD-licensed tools to develop > hardware, as well as using GPLed symbols/footprints, am I obligated > to open-source the hardware design (the schematic, the PCB layout)?
If you never distribute a design, no license will ever coerce you to open-source it. Using or incorporating BSD-licensed anything will never force you to open-source a design. If you merely use GPL code to produce a design, that does not force your to open-source the design, even if you distribute it. The only time the GPL will apply to your design is if your design can be considered a "derived work" (in the copyright law sense) of the GPLed material. For an example of that process that has some relation to the concern you raise, look at the parsers generated by flex and bison. The output of these programs include both material you design, and GPLed stuff. The two are intertwined, necessarily covered by the GPL, so if you distribute the result you are obligated to provide the source (at least to your customers, see the GPL for full details), and that includes the stuff you wrote. I would certainly argue that if you distribute a schematic or layout that incorporates a GPLed symbol or footprint, that distribution would have be in a GPL-compatible form. I would not assert that manufacturing and distributing the resulting circuit board would trigger any GPL terms. In a real sense, the opinions of open-source zealots like me, and the terms of the GPL itself, don't matter. The opinions that matter are those of your customers, who are the only ones who have standing to ask for the "source" mandated by the GPL, and the judge, who will be called on to decide if the work your customers received is a "derived work" of the GPLed material. This is a good argument for not using the GPL for footprints. BSD, or even LGPL, makes a lot more sense, IMHO. IANAL, so these opinions are theoretically worthless. - Larry _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user