[License-discuss] Proposal of new new open-source license for graphics (TERO-GL-1.0)

Mon Nov 3 07:49:46 UTC 2025

Hi Bruce

Thanks for your insightful feedback.

We do not intend to apply any technical protection measures to the licensed material ourselves. Nevertheless, we wanted to account for the eventuality that third parties might need to apply those to protect their business model as the alternative would be that they would not use the license and instead (continue to) use a proprietary license, which would hinder innovation in the relevant field more than allowing TPMs would.

At Universal Robots, we have always used an open software platform to encourage and facilitate third parties building applications for it, but this particular license is a bit different as it is tailored to facilitate use of graphical files and the like, which we would like to allow anyone to use for any purpose, however, without prejudicing our core IP (particularly, our patents, copyright in software and design rights) and our extensive R&D investments. We have recently been approached by other companies facing the same problem, and we have therefore drafted this license that tries to strike the, in our opinion, right balance, which we wanted to make available for anyone to apply to their own materials as well.

Best Regards

Morten Fruelund
IPR Manager

Energivej 51
5260 Odense S
Denmark
Cell: +45 28 93 03 22
morten.fruelund at teradyne-robotics.com<mailto:morten.fruelund at teradyne-robotics.com>

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________________________________
From: Bruce Perens <bruce at perens.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 20:38
To: license-discuss at lists.opensource.org <license-discuss at lists.opensource.org>
Cc: Morten Fruelund <morten.fruelund at teradyne-robotics.com>
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] Proposal of new new open-source license for graphics (TERO-GL-1.0)

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Hi Morton,

After a quick read it seems that you wish to prevent circumventions of your digital rights management which is applied to the same code which is Open Sourced. This seems somewhat self-contradictory, and I would consider any use restriction at all to be in contravention of the Fields of Endeavor clause. I wrote that clause.

However, you can probably do what you wish, if you draw more clear lines between what you wish to protect and what you wish to Open Source. It seems to me that you have a robot operating system which you wish to protect, and you also wish to foster an Open Source community of applications to run on top of that operating system. This is analogous to Open Source applications running on Windows or iOS. If you would come back to us with a better description of your goals, we'd be happy to help.

    Thanks

    Bruce

On Tue, Oct 28, 2025 at 11:50 AM Morten Fruelund via License-discuss <license-discuss at lists.opensource.org<mailto:license-discuss at lists.opensource.org>> wrote:
I am representing Teradyne Robotics A/S, a division of Teradyne inc. (https://www.teradyne.com/), that provides robot arms (https://www.universal-robots.com/)  and autonomous mobile robots (https://mobile-industrial-robots.com/).

Teradyne Robotics A/S is proposing a new open-source license for graphics (TERO-GL-1.0), and I am reaching out to this forum to collect feedback on the proposed license before submitting the license for a formal review by the OSI.

The proposal can be found on this GitHub page: https://github.com/UniversalRobots/TERO-GL [github.com]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/UniversalRobots/TERO-GL__;!!GenOTVeOfQ!VRIz_c27A9_OLHvB3M2xwJGw-Z92BzWYj3Jf_zM8QZQKA5agFfu5YqDOhAjS6kCegxYTw09mQCcgQ36B3JoSmEicbIo$>,
    where the proposed license is provided as the license file (https://github.com/UniversalRobots/TERO-GL/blob/main/LICENSE [github.com]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/UniversalRobots/TERO-GL/blob/main/LICENSE__;!!GenOTVeOfQ!VRIz_c27A9_OLHvB3M2xwJGw-Z92BzWYj3Jf_zM8QZQKA5agFfu5YqDOhAjS6kCegxYTw09mQCcgQ36B3JoSUn737KE$>), and
the motivation is provided as the README file (https://github.com/UniversalRobots/TERO-GL/blob/main/README.md [github.com]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/UniversalRobots/TERO-GL/blob/main/README.md__;!!GenOTVeOfQ!VRIz_c27A9_OLHvB3M2xwJGw-Z92BzWYj3Jf_zM8QZQKA5agFfu5YqDOhAjS6kCegxYTw09mQCcgQ36B3JoSpkcKYco$>).

Best Regards

Morten Fruelund

IPR Manager

Energivej 51
5260 Odense S
Denmark
Cell: +45 28 93 03 22
morten.fruelund at teradyne-robotics.com<mailto:morten.fruelund at teradyne-robotics.com>

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Please note that this message may contain confidential information. If you have received this message by mistake,
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from viruses and other errors that might affect the computer or IT system where it is received and read,
the recipient opens the message at his or her own risk. We assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the receipt or use of this message.

If Universal Robots A/S processes personal data relating to physical persons, such processing will meet the requirements of applicable data protection legislation.
Please see our Privacy Policy here<https://www.universal-robots.com/about-universal-robots/privacy-policy/>.

________________________________

Please note that this message may contain confidential information. If you have received this message by mistake, please inform the sender of the mistake, then delete the message from your system without making, distributing or retaining any copies of it. Although we believe that the message and any attachments are free from viruses and other errors that might affect the computer or IT system where it is received and read, the recipient opens the message at his or her own risk. We assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the receipt or use of this message. When we process personal data relating to physical persons, such processing will meet the requirements of applicable data protection legislation and will be in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<https://www.teradyne.com/privacy-statement>

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Please note that this message may contain confidential information. If you have received this message by mistake, please inform the sender of the mistake, then delete the message from your system without making, distributing or retaining any copies of it. Although we believe that the message and any attachments are free from viruses and other errors that might affect the computer or IT system where it is received and read, the recipient opens the message at his or her own risk. We assume no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the receipt or use of this message. When we process personal data relating to physical persons, such processing will meet the requirements of applicable data protection legislation and will be in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<https://www.teradyne.com/privacy-statement>
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