Again, for me the question is: do we want to *explicitly* allow people to take components of a library, improve them and not share the improvements back? If yes, CC0. If not, CC-BY-SA with the proposed paragraphs to clarify that the license provisions do not extend to the whole schematics, layout or circuit model.
Cirilo,
Can we stipulate as part of the license file that any contributors agree
implicitly that their generated models are released as public domain?
i.e. don't require explicit release from every contributor, as it is
inherent to the library LICENSE?
a) If you contribute model / footprint / symbol to KiCad libraries, they
can be distributed in accordance with [whatever license we choose here]
b) KiCad assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the model data
c) Library data may be shared freely*
* Here "freely" is the current source of contention. I am all for having
as permissive a license as possible - I don't see any benefit from
locking the library down.
Oliver
On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 8:25 AM, Cirilo Bernardo
<cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 8:16 AM, Oliver Walters
<oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> Would it be sufficient to drop the "Copyright (C) 2017 KiCad" header?
>
No, because we have no idea who holds copyright. KiCad cannot be a
copyright holder
because it is not a legal entity (person or corporation). We would
need to maintain a text
file which is a register of the copyright holders of each file. To
complicate things, many
models are generated from parametric scripts. The scripts themselves
are copyright
material but the models produced is a different matter. If you can get
all script contributors
to agree, then I think it would be best to release the generated
models as Public Domain.
Even this is not so simple because we would need to maintain a
directory with declarations
from script contributors to state that the output of the scripts are
Public Domain. Even
that is not so simple because some jurisdictions may not accept that
mechanism.
- Cirilo
> On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 5:28 PM, Javier Serrano
> <javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 3:27 AM, Oliver Walters
>> <oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:oliver.henry.walters@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Wayne, others,
>>>
>>> A lot of input here, thanks everyone.
>>>
>>> Based on the suggestions above, my proposal is as follows:
>>>
>>>
>>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> symbols licence file:
>>>
>>>
>>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Copyright (C) 2017 KiCad
>>>
>>
>> I agree with Simon that "KiCad" cannot be the copyright holder.
Imagine
>> for the sake of argument I need to contact the copyright holder.
Say I would
>> like to negotiate with him/her a change of licence. I want to
use the
>> material without being subject to the CC-BY-SA licence, and I am
willing to
>> pay for it. So I'd like to benefit from some kind of
dual-licensing scheme,
>> whereby I receive e.g. a copy of a 3D model file with a special
licence just
>> for me. Only the copyright holder can do that. Now I go to the
file and I
>> read "Copyright KiCad." Who should I speak to? Who has the right
to do what
>> I need? That's just an example. For any action where you would
need the
>> copyright holder to do something, you'd bump against the same
issue. One
>> could conceivably define KiCad as a valid legal entity, and then
you could
>> have KiCad be the copyright holder, as the FSF is the copyright
holder of
>> lots of code, but that's a strategic change to be discussed, I
guess, with
>> the project leader and the project initiator. Right now, KiCad
cannot be the
>> holder of any copyright. The same applies, IMHO, to "KiCad
developers."
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Javier
>
>
>
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