kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Opendous Support <opendous.support@xxxxxxxxx>]

>>>Footprints are not subject to copyright either.
>>>They are not creative: ... they are simple data
>>>gathered from JEDEC, IPC and manufacturer sources.

  Copyright is designed to protect the "original expression of ideas,
and not the ideas themselves".  For example, if you take a photograph
of the insides of your computer you are automatically the Copyright
owner of the photograph.  Your original expression is the overexposed
and blurry image.  In the same way that JEDEC/IPC/manufacturers own
the Copyrights on the datasheets/specifications they produce, you own
the specification (schematic and layout files) you produce of your
design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Idea-expression_dichotomy_and_the_merger_doctrine

  Everything but the actual circuit connection ideas can be
Copyrighted since "copy[right] covers only the expression of the
definition, not the circuit itself".  In other words, someone can redo
your work and create something nearly identical and they will be the
Copyright owners of that work.
http://features.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1999-06-22-005-05-NW-LF
http://www.armisteadtechnologies.com/copy-pcb.shtml
http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW

>>I can be wrong, but, anything that's been designed
>>by an author, has authorship, and it makes it have copyright.

  That is the most sensible attitude.

>It's not worth worrying about: really.

  Why risk it.  Anything that can lead to FUD from others and dissuade
use of KiCad should be avoided.  I would be willing to donate all my
library work into the Public Domain under, for example, the Creative
Commons Public Domain Dedication:
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

  If the original authors of library elements cannot be contacted
simply ask users of the KiCad mailing list to recreate schematic
symbols and module footprints.  I'm sure many users would be willing
to help out and contribute.  As noted earlier, it is the expression of
an idea that is Copyrightable so it is mostly a simple matter of
redoing the work.

-Matt

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 4:28 AM, Brian F. G. Bidulock
<bidulock@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Miguel,
>
> On Thu, 22 Mar 2012, Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo wrote:
>
>> I can be wrong, but, anything that's been designed by an author, has
>> authorship, and it makes it have copyright.
>
> Sorry, it doesn't work that way.
>
> --brian
>
> --
> Brian F. G. Bidulock    ¦ The reasonable man adapts himself to the ¦
> bidulock@xxxxxxxxxxx    ¦ world; the unreasonable one persists in  ¦
> http://www.openss7.org/ ¦ trying  to adapt the  world  to himself. ¦
>                        ¦ Therefore  all  progress  depends on the ¦
>                        ¦ unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw ¦
>
>
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