RFC: open license for hardware designs

[Ralph_Giles at sfu.ca]

Hello all,

I'm interested in constructing an Open Source license, probably along
the lines of the (L)GPL, that can be applied to *hardware designs*
rather than the traditional software. Indeed, many parts of the modern
hardware design process (for digital electronics, anyway) can be
likened to the assembly or compilation of a high-level
specification/schematic (source) into a form suitable for production on
a manufacturing line (executable). 

Thus, I'm writing to license-discuss to request people's thoughts on
this issue. My starting point is to replace "source code" with
"hardware design" and "executable" with "physical instantiation" in the
GPL, and will post such a thing some days' time. In the meantime I'd
like to hear other ideas on this topic.

Some snags I can think of:

- we may want to be more sophisticated about the different levels we're
  applying our limitations to. It's reasonable in current technology to
  make a distinction between chip and board level designs; we may want
  to say something specific about what can cross from one level to
  another.

- What counts as 'linking' needs careful thought. Presumedly on an
  "LGPL'd" motherboard, it would be acceptable to add a proprietary
  subsystem that communicated over a standard protocol (e.g. the pci
  bus) but not on a "GPL'd" design. But how is this different from using
  separate card (in a pci slot)?

- It may be necessary to have something more in the spirit of the BSD
  license for those who wish to include closed license designs for
  expediency's sake. This would still be far better than nothing.

I've heard open source advocates say, "I don't want anything between me
and the hardware." I don't see why we should have anything between us
and the ore we dug out of the ground. :)

While the economics of hardware instantiation are completely different
from the modern software environment, the design itself is susceptible
to all the traditional benefits of Open Source development, and I would
like to see that tradition extended to the hardware we use. 

Thanks for listening,
 -ralph


P.S. My apologies if this isn't on topic, but I can't seem to find a
list archive (on the web) from which to make this assessment.

P.P.S. for those interested in historical context, this was inspired by
the recent MacWeek story that IBM was releasing an 'unencumbered'
PowerPC motherboard design. This design (might...there's been no public
announcement from IBM) provide a good starting point from which to
hack. See http://raj.phys.sfu.ca/mailman/listinfo/ppc-mobo for more
info on this aspect.

--
Ralph_Giles at sfu.ca