The TAPR Open Hardware License (TAPR OPL) is a

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

used in

open-source hardware Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and a ...

projects. It was created by

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio TAPR is an international amateur radio organization. It was founded in Tucson, Arizona, in 1981 by a group of amateurs interested in developing a terminal node controller (TNC) for amateur use. Thus, the group was named Tucson Amateur Packet Rad ...

(TAPR), an international amateur radio organization. Version 1.0 was published on May 25, 2007. Like the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

, the OHL is designed to guarantee freedom to share and to create, and forbids anyone who receives rights under the OHL 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.

Conditions

Although the TAPR OHL aims to maintain the philosophy of

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...

, there are obvious differences in physical reality which require some differences in licenses. As a result, the license defines two conditions: Documentation, as in design information; and Products, the physical products created from them.

Adoption

The TAPR OHL is the license for the materials from the

Open Graphics Project The Open Graphics Project (OGP) was founded with the goal to design an open-source hardware / open architecture and standard for graphics cards, primarily targeting free software / open-source operating systems. The project created a reprogramma ...

as of April 7, 2009. The TAPR OHL is the license for the materials from Lotus Green Data Centers as of July 28, 2008.

Criticism

Former

OSI OSI may refer to: Places * Osijek Airport (IATA code: OSI), an airport in Croatia * Ősi, a village in Veszprém county, Hungary * Oši, an archaeological site in Semigallia, Latvia * Osi, a village in Ido-Osi, Ekiti State, Nigeria * Osi, Ekiti ...

president

Eric S. Raymond Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), often referred to as ESR, is an American software developer, open-source software advocate, and author of the 1997 essay and 1999 book ''The Cathedral and the Bazaar''. He wrote a guidebook for the ...

expressed some concerns about certain aspects of the OHL. He claimed that the license has "lots of problems" and that it "strips the word 'distribution' of its normal meaning, assuring lots of contention over edge cases".Ars Technica: TAPR introduces open-source hardware license, OSI skeptical
There were also concerns that the Open Hardware License may place the design and/or idea into the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

by publishing it before securing the benefits of patent protection.Novelty And Non-Obviousness, Conditions For Obtaining A Patent: US Patent and Trademark Office
The OSI did not choose to review the TAPR license.

References

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External links

Open Source Semiconductor Core Licensing, 25 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 131 (2011)
Article analyzing the law, technology and business of open source semiconductor cores Open hardware licenses

Conditions

Adoption

Criticism

See also

References

External links