A bit tabloid but an interesting article about open hardware licensing issues none-the-less:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/nwavguy-the-audio-genius-who-van...
Regards, @ndy
On 15 January 2016 at 00:07, Andy Bennett andyjpb@ashurst.eu.org wrote:
A bit tabloid but an interesting article about open hardware licensing issues none-the-less:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/nwavguy-the-audio-genius-who-van...
Great story, but two things:
"But the particular open-source license he applied—Creative Commons CC BY-ND"
ND clause means the licence fails the Open Source Definition, so his designs are not technically open source.
"But in July 2012, NwAvGuy went silent. E-mails weren’t returned, and blog posting ceased. “He had gone quiet before—for a month or so,” says Boudreau. But no one has heard a peep from NwAvGuy in more than a year and a half.
It was always NwAvGuy’s prerogative to stop blogging or giving advice. But his mysterious disappearance created a predicament when the power jack used in the O2 amplifier went out of production. Equivalent replacements remain easy to source, but they don’t fit the holes in NwAvGuy’s original printed circuit board.
“He made it so you could see it, but not touch it,” says Seaber. That is, while Seaber and others had the files they needed to have printed-circuit boards made, no one but NwAvGuy had the original layout file, which would allow easy changes."
Given it seems there is reasonable motivation — HiFi companies are selling his designs — it would relatively trivial to re-enter those designs in your EDA tool of choice, before modifying and issuing the files output under whatever licence you please (or not doing).
Cheers,
Andrew
Hi,
“He made it so you could see it, but not touch it,” says Seaber. That is, while Seaber and others had the files they needed to have printed-circuit boards made, no one but NwAvGuy had the original layout file, which would allow easy changes."
Given it seems there is reasonable motivation — HiFi companies are selling his designs — it would relatively trivial to re-enter those designs in your EDA tool of choice, before modifying and issuing the files output under whatever licence you please (or not doing).
Agreed regarding "ND" but not so sure about the ethical issues around your suggestion. For me, it was this bit made me wonder if it was really "open source" as they didn't have the actual "source": only the manufacturing "object files" (gerbers?).
What do the Open Hardware peeps and licenses say about the requirements around the artifacts that have to be provided in order to be "open"?
Regards, @ndy
On 15 January 2016 at 14:11, Andy Bennett andyjpb@ashurst.eu.org wrote:
Hi,
“He made it so you could see it, but not touch it,” says Seaber. That is, while Seaber and others had the files they needed to have printed-circuit boards made, no one but NwAvGuy had the original layout file, which would allow easy changes."
Given it seems there is reasonable motivation — HiFi companies are selling his designs — it would relatively trivial to re-enter those designs in your EDA tool of choice, before modifying and issuing the files output under whatever licence you please (or not doing).
Agreed regarding "ND" but not so sure about the ethical issues around your suggestion. For me, it was this bit made me wonder if it was really "open source" as they didn't have the actual "source": only the manufacturing "object files" (gerbers?).
What do the Open Hardware peeps and licenses say about the requirements around the artifacts that have to be provided in order to be "open"?
timing... I was reading this a couple of days ago (which I'm not sure I 100% agree with btw): https://olimex.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/open-source-hardware-oshw-why-it-mat...
and that had an interesting link off to a Stallman article recently published. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html
Graham
Regards, @ndy
-- andyjpb@ashurst.eu.org http://www.ashurst.eu.org/ 0290 DA75 E982 7D99 A51F E46A 387A 7695 7EBA 75FF
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On 15/01/16 14:25, Graham Whaley wrote:
On 15 January 2016 at 14:11, Andy Bennett andyjpb@ashurst.eu.org wrote:
Hi,
“He made it so you could see it, but not touch it,” says Seaber. That is, while Seaber and others had the files they needed to have printed-circuit boards made, no one but NwAvGuy had the original layout file, which would allow easy changes."
Given it seems there is reasonable motivation — HiFi companies are selling his designs — it would relatively trivial to re-enter those designs in your EDA tool of choice, before modifying and issuing the files output under whatever licence you please (or not doing).
Agreed regarding "ND" but not so sure about the ethical issues around your suggestion. For me, it was this bit made me wonder if it was really "open source" as they didn't have the actual "source": only the manufacturing "object files" (gerbers?).
What do the Open Hardware peeps and licenses say about the requirements around the artifacts that have to be provided in order to be "open"?
timing... I was reading this a couple of days ago (which I'm not sure I 100% agree with btw): https://olimex.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/open-source-hardware-oshw-why-it-mat...
and that had an interesting link off to a Stallman article recently published. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html
I'd missed this. RMS has started to talk about hardware at last. For years, whenever you asked him about free and open hardware (I've tried) he would change the subject to free software.
Jeremy
Graham
Regards, @ndy
-- andyjpb@ashurst.eu.org http://www.ashurst.eu.org/ 0290 DA75 E982 7D99 A51F E46A 387A 7695 7EBA 75FF
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