The TAPR Noncommercial Hardware License
The TAPR Noncommercial Hardware License is TAPR's contribution to the community of Open
Hardware developers. TAPR grants permission for anyone to use the NCL as the
license for their hardware project, provided only that it is used in unaltered
form.
Download the TAPR Noncommercial Hardware License:
TAPR has created another license, the
TAPR Open Hardware License ("OHL"), which is identical to the
NCL but does not place any limitation on commercial use of OHL designs.
We encourage you to use the Open Hardware License if you can, as it more
closely follows the Open Source software philosophy than does the NCL.
About the NCL
The TAPR Noncommercial Hardware License ("NCL") provides a framework
for hardware projects that is similar to the one used for
Open Source software. This isn't
as straight-forward as it seems because legal concepts that work well for
software (such as copyright and
copyleft)
don't neatly fit when dealing with hardware products and the documentation
used to create them.
Here is a description, taken from the NCL's Preamble, of how the
Noncommercial Hardware License works and how to use it:
Open Hardware is a thing - a physical artifact, either electrical or
mechanical - whose design information is available to, and usable by,
the public in a way that allows anyone to make, modify, distribute, and
use that thing. In this preface, design information is called
"documentation" and things created from it are called "products."
The TAPR Noncommercial Hardware License ("NCL") agreement provides a legal
framework for Open Hardware projects. It may be used for any kind of
product, be it a hammer or a computer motherboard, and is TAPR's
contribution to the community; anyone may use the NCL for their Open
Hardware project.
Like the
GNU General Public License, the NCL is designed to guarantee
your freedom to share and to create. It forbids anyone who receives
rights under the NCL to deny any other licensee those same rights to
copy, modify, and distribute documentation, and to make, use and
distribute products based on that documentation.
Unlike the GPL, the NCL is not primarily a copyright license. While
copyright protects documentation from unauthorized copying,
modification, and distribution, it has little to do with your right to
make, distribute, or use a product based on that documentation. For
better or worse, patents play a significant role in those activities.
Although it does not prohibit anyone from patenting inventions embodied
in an Open Hardware design, and of course cannot prevent a third party
from enforcing their patent rights, those who benefit from an NCL design
may not bring lawsuits claiming that design infringes their patents or
other intellectual property.
The NCL addresses unique issues involved in the creation of tangible,
physical things, but does not cover software, firmware, or code loaded
into programmable devices. A copyright-oriented license such as the
GPL better
suits these creations.
How can you use the NCL, or a design based upon it? While the numbered
sections of the agreement take precedence over this preamble, here is a
summary:
* You may modify the documentation and make products based upon it,
provided you do not make more than ten units in any twelve month period.
* You may use products for any legal purpose without limitation.
* You may distribute unmodified documentation, but you must include the
complete package as you received it.
* You may distribute products you make to third parties, if you:
* Either include the documentation on which the product is based, or make
it available without charge for at least three years to anyone who requests
it.
* Distribute only on a non-profit basis, charging no more than the actual
cost of parts, assembly, and shipping.
* You may distribute modified documentation or products based on it, if
you:
* License your modifications under the NCL.
* Include those modifications, following the requirements stated below.
* Attempt to send the modified documentation by email to any of the
developers who have provided their email address. This is a good
faith obligation -- if the email fails, you need do nothing more
and may go on with your distribution.
* If you create a design that you want to license under the NCL, you should:
* Include the NCL document in a file named LICENSE.TXT (or LICENSE.PDF)
that is included in the documentation package.
* If the file format allows, include a notice like "Licensed under the TAPR
Open Hardware License (www.tapr.org/NCL)" in each documentation file. While
not required, you should also include this notice on printed circuit board
artwork and the product itself; if space is limited the notice can be
shortened or abbreviated.
* Include a copyright notice in each file and on printed circuit board
artwork.
* If you wish to be notified of modifications that others may make, include
your email address in a file named "CONTRIB.TXT" or something similar.
* Any time the NCL requires you to make documentation available to others,
you must include all the materials you received from the upstream licensors.
In addition, if you have modified the documentation:
* You must identify the modifications in a text file (preferably named
"CHANGES.TXT") that you include with the documentation. That file must also
include a statement like "These modifications are licensed under the TAPR
Open Hardware License."
* You must include any new files you created, including any manufacturing
files (such as Gerber files) you create in the course of making products.
* You must include both "before" and "after" versions of all files you
modified.
* You may include files in proprietary formats, but you must also include
open format versions (such as Gerber, ASCII, Postscript, or PDF) if your
tools can create them.
Legal Background
John Ackermann's article
explores the legal issues involved with applying open source software
concepts to hardware designs. (Reproduced by permission of the University
of Dayton Law Review; cite as John R. Ackermann,
Toward Open Source
Hardware, 34 U. Dayton L. Rev. 183 (2009)).
Credits
John Ackermann, N8UR, is the author of the TAPR Noncommercial Hardware License.
John is an attorney who specializes in software licensing. He was assisted
by a number of both active developers and lawyers who reviewed innumerable
drafts and provided valuable feedback.
The primary review mechanism was an "OHL Development" mailing list. The
members of that list include: Lyle Johnson, KK7P, Bruce Perens, K6BP, Bdale
Garbee, KB0G, David Toth, VE3GYQ, Don Jackson, AE5K, Chris Day, AE6VK,
Rick Hambly, W2GPS, and Darryl Smith, VK2TDS.
In February, 2007, a public comment period took place, hosted at
Technocrat.net. That conversation
resulted in a number of improvements to the NCL. You may
review the comments here.
John would particularly like to thank Bdale Garbee, Lyle Johnson,
Bruce Perens, and especially his colleagues Kirk Johnsen and
Professor Robert Lech, for help that went above and beyond the call of duty.
注：TAPR NHL（原文出处，以上翻译整理仅供参考! email: support@microembedded.com）
