[od-discuss] Proposed License - Hacked Apache 2.0

Thu Mar 8 03:09:57 UTC 2012

On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 5:26 AM, Andrew Katz <Andrew.Katz at moorcrofts.com> wrote:
> Here's a link to a licence I've been working on and I'd like to propose as a conformant licence. It's intended for open hardware, but can equally be used for software (the eagle-eyed will note that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the Apache 2.0 license).
>
> http://solderpad.org/licenses/SHL-0.5/
>
> The backstory is this: I've been working with a number of open hardware projects, and I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that a permissive licence makes more sense than a copyleft licence. The only two licences currently proposed for covering open hardware are the TAPR and CERN licences, both of which have a copyleft element. I posited the idea of using Apache as a base, and taking a look at it, it is remarkably simple to convert it to cover hardware.
>
> Andrew Back at Solderpad has kindly agreed to host it.
>
> The Apache Foundation are aware of the licence, and several members are quite keen to adopt it, but the current issue is that they do not currently have a hardware project which is a suitable candidate for licensing in this way (although I am actively looking to find one). I have also discussed the licence with Larry Rosen, who has made  number of (largely useful) suggestions.
>
> The licence differs from Apache mainly in that it covers additional forms of IP which are not covered by Apache (such as database extraction right), and also adjusts the terminology slightly to make it more understandable in a hardware context.
>
> The preamble allows optional licensing under a non-ported Apache licence, for those who have a requirement for a more commonly used licence.
>
> I'd welcome any comments on the licence, and would like it to be proposed for conformance. I don't believe that any hardware licence has yet been approved by any credible entity such as the FSF or OSI, so I would be honoured to have the OKN be the first to approve a hardware licence compatible with open principles!

At a glance (wdiff with Apache 2.0 below) I don't see anything
obviously making it non-compliant with the OKD, but I have two
questions:

Why is it called a hardware license? Obviously it could be used for
software, non-hardware-design-documentation, databases, etc.
Personally I'd rather not promote the idea of more field-specific
licenses. Much less problematic in the case of a permissive license,
and even less so given the built-in effective dual licensing under
Apache 2.0, but I think more confusing than necessary, more
splintering of knowledge than necessary, and clearly problematic when
non-permissive conditions come into play (of course the other two
maybe hardware-specific licenses being discussed elsewhere do have
such conditions; obviously same-license ones, but while on this
tangent, they probably aren't OKD-compliant due to upstream
notification conditions, though to my knowledge such have not been
discussed in context of OKD).

I'm not sure exactly of when a hardware design project would impinge
on database rights, but as they are mentioned (and I suspect it is a
good thing to do so, even for future "software" licenses) in a
specific way (extraction), why only extraction? And would this license
be compatible with other licenses used for databases? AFAIK existing
such either do not enumerate specific database right actions, or they
mention both extraction and re-utilization. I know not the legal
import of this.

Best,
Mike

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