Re: fsf/chips

[Yann Guidon <whygee@f-cpu.org>]

Jamil Khatib wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> It is nice to see all this activites on the Hardware
> license (hardware and hardware design protection as I
> prefer to say it).
> 
> It was very long time since the last discussion about
> that. I worked with graham and many other hardware
> groups for more than a year on such protection
> schemes.

it's never too late to do things.

> As I remember for every discussion we end up with the
> same results and conclusions.
just like Graham said ;-)

> I summarized many of these results and discussions on
> the OpenIPCore site at
> http://www.opencores.org/OIPC/lic.shtml
> it seems that we have to work again on it even though
> I belive that there are some real problems even for
> companies with protecting their designs.

the "real problem" is to forget these problems at the design
phase. things like patents and copyright are annoying thoughts
that can paralyze a project.
fortunately i think that i know enough to deal with the common
situation, for the F-CPU sake, and the GPL does the trick
for most the cases but it's still not perfect.

> my main objective (as always) is to try to state what
> we want from a license and try to give them to experts
> who can give us some advices

i've read the goals from basiclic.shtml :

"Any update to the design should be documented and returned to the design. "
 it's not very "GPL", it's not something that can be legally enforced,
like the problem of the URL on the chips.

"Any work based on the design can be either made free under OpenIP licnese or protected by any other licnese."
 this is something that can be easily "reinterpreted" ... bad bad bad. it contradicts 
the line that says : "Any derivative work based on the IP should be free under OpenIP Licnese."


licgoals.shtml says :
"The license should restrict the commercial income of the hardware products"
i don't think that it is useful. it' restricts the "free" market.

> I'll start by my self in the week end to summarize all
> what I think we need of a license

i retrospect, after what we discussed with Graham, i think that a
slightly more "picky" GPL can do the trick. not only for HW IP projects
but also for other "classical" projects.


> Regards
> Jamil Khatib
WHYGEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the F-CPU: http://www.mime.univ-paris8.fr/~whygee/f-cpu.html
SHARCPAGE: http://www.mime.univ-paris8.fr/~whygee/sharcpage.html