October 1, 2024
What do you know about open hardware?
Why is it so important to know about open hardware?
- To understand the possibilities embedded in open hardware compared to a more traditional way of operation
- To protect the sustainability of the business model despite using open hardware strategies, e.g., by seeking alternatives to patenting in other types of bundles of rights
- To collaborate on trustworthy implementations of open hardware…
… and more!
Open hardware is different from open source software
Unlike open source software, open source hardware (OSH) is a less mature and clear concept whose boundaries are still being defined. There at least three distinct topics that are relevant in the context of open hardware:
- Open hardware movement has taken a more cautious approach compared to open source software
- There are fewer specific licences for open hardware and existing open source software licences are not always a good match
- Application of intellectual property rights to different aspects of hardware is still unclear
The first hurdle is to define what is covered by ‘hardware’. While copyright law has accommodated computer programs under the heading of ‘literary works’, there is no equivalent category for hardware. This is partly owing to the lack of a single definition of hardware but also because the production of functional or technical objects is significantly different to developing software.
Originally, the term ‘open hardware’ was used in the late 1990s to refer to hardware with freely available interface information. Access to the hardware designs or modification rights was therefore not required. At the time, the point was to facilitate device driver programming and ensure that more devices could interoperate with the GNU/Linux ecosystem.
Hardware is fundamentally different to software because it consists of physical material, i.e., atoms. Under this broad definition hardware can take many different forms, such as printed circuit boards, silicon chip designs, mechanical devices, and perhaps even artistic objects! Since any hardware design includes electronic components (e.g., capacitors, transistors, resistors) described at a high level of abstraction, the OSH design cannot be replicated as easily as an OSS design.
Significant drivers of adoption were the maker movement, various meetups and groups, and of course the work of the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA). We now have a host of examples of successful open hardware projects, such as Arduino, RepRap, open source chip designs based on RISC-V, the CERN White Rabbit Project, OpenSPARC, SiFive etc.
The definition of open hardware
The most widely popular definition of ‘open hardware’ is the Open Source Hardware Definition and the associated Statement of Principles adopted by OSHWA. The Statement of Principles defines open source hardware as:
Hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware’s source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format for making modifications to it. Ideally, open source hardware uses readily-available components and materials, standard processes, open infrastructure, unrestricted content, and open-source design tools to maximise the ability of individuals to make and use hardware. Open source hardware gives people the freedom to control their technology while sharing knowledge and encouraging commerce through the open exchange of designs.
Like the general definition of ‘open’, the ’open source hardware’ definition is also based on the Open Source Definition for Open Source Software. Similarly, the definition consists of an introductory section, followed by 12 criteria that distribution terms must meet.
The introductory section clarifies that ‘Open Source Hardware (OSH) is a term for tangible artifacts — machines, devices, or other physical things — whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things’. Importantly, it also highlights the difference between hardware and software, as follows: ‘Hardware is different from software in that physical resources must always be committed for the creation of physical goods. Accordingly, persons or companies producing items (“products”) under an OSHW license have an obligation to make it clear that such products are not manufactured, sold, warrantied, or otherwise sanctioned by the original designer and also not to make use of any trademarks owned by the original designer’.
The distribution terms for Open Source Hardware must comply with the following criteria:
| Criterion | Content |
| Documentation | The hardware must be released with documentation including design files and must allow modification and distribution of the design files. Where documentation is not furnished with the physical product, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining this documentation for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably downloading via the Internet without charge. The documentation must include design files in the preferred format for making changes, for example the native file format of a CAD program. Deliberately obfuscated design files are not allowed. Intermediate forms analogous to compiled computer code — such as printer-ready copper artwork from a CAD program — are not allowed as substitutes. The license may require that the design files are provided in fully documented, open format(s). |
| Scope | The documentation for the hardware must clearly specify what portion of the design, if not all, is being released under the license. |
| Necessary software | If the licensed design requires software, embedded or otherwise, to operate properly and fulfil its essential functions, then the license may require that one of the following conditions are met: a) The interfaces are sufficiently documented such that it could reasonably be considered straightforward to write open source software that allows the device to operate properly and fulfil its essential functions. For example, this may include the use of detailed signal timing diagrams or pseudocode to clearly illustrate the interface in operation. b) The necessary software is released under an OSI-approved open source license. |
| Derived Works | The license shall allow modifications and derived works and shall allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original work. The license shall allow for the manufacture, sale, distribution, and use of products created from the design files, the design files themselves, and derivatives thereof. |
| Free redistribution | The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the project documentation. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale. The license shall not require any royalty or fee related to the sale of derived works. |
| Attribution | The license may require derived documents, and copyright notices associated with devices, to provide attribution to the licensors when distributing design files, manufactured products, and/or derivatives thereof. The license may require that this information be accessible to the end-user using the device normally but shall not specify a specific format of display. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original design. |
| No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups | The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons. |
| No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor | The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the work (including manufactured hardware) in a specific field of endeavour. For example, it must not restrict the hardware from being used in a business, or from being used in nuclear research. |
| Distribution of License | The rights granted by the license must apply to all to whom the work is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties. |
| License Must Not Be Specific to a Product | The rights granted by the license must not depend on the licensed work being part of a particular product. If a portion is extracted from a work and used or distributed within the terms of the license, all parties to whom that work is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted for the original work. |
| License Must Not Restrict Other Hardware or Software | The license must not place restrictions on other items that are aggregated with the licensed work but not derivative of it. For example, the license must not insist that all other hardware sold with the licensed item be open source, nor that only open source software be used external to the device. |
| License Must Be Technology-Neutral | No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology, specific part or component, material, or style of interface or use thereof. |
Open hardware involves an array of intellectual property rights
Open hardware distribution may trigger an array of intellectual property rights which are not typical for distribution of software. These may be patent rights that impinge on the use and exploitation of a piece of hardware.
Unlike software, where it is challenging to prove infringement, a piece of hardware may infringe a patent in a much more obvious way.
Hardware may also concern registered and unregistered design rights, database rights, and semiconductor topography (mask) rights.
Finally, copyright may subsist in the documentation and other related content that meets the criterion of being an author’s own intellectual creation.
Open hardware licensing is therefore much more complex compared to open source software, and this has made standardisation and widespread adoption a challenge.
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