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| 1 | +The Balloon Open Hardware License (BOHL) |
| 2 | +Version 0.2 For Discussion |
| 3 | +The Text of this License is Copyright © 2006 2007 iTechnic Ltd |
| 4 | +Permission is granted to copy this license unmodified and use it to protect Open Hardware |
| 5 | +Designs. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +Preamble |
| 8 | +This license agreement covers hardware designed, manufactured and distributed on an open basis. |
| 9 | +The license outlines the Terms and Conditions placed on the use of the design. When licensing |
| 10 | +Open Hardware it is important to note that there is a significant distinction between Open |
| 11 | +Hardware and Open Software particularly with respect to both the design process and the |
| 12 | +replication process. |
| 13 | +Firstly the design and replication of hardware is different because there are intermediate steps in |
| 14 | +the processes that are valuable in their own right. Secondly the process of replication can involve |
| 15 | +considerable time, cost and expertise. For these reasons it is not appropriate to simply transfer |
| 16 | +licenses that have validity in the software domain (such as the GPL) to the hardware domain. |
| 17 | +This license is intended to establish an Open Design approach in the hardware domain while |
| 18 | +building in practical safeguards, which are necessary for the design and manufacture of hardware, |
| 19 | +where manufacturers take a financial and legal risk when replicating Open Hardware and where |
| 20 | +the physical product must conform to approvals if its sale is to be legal. It is also important to |
| 21 | +protect designers from issues of liability particularly as many designers may be working as |
| 22 | +individuals and therefore not protected by an employer. |
| 23 | +The license is written to apply to any type of hardware produced using an Open Hardware design |
| 24 | +process. It has originated from the Balloon Project (www.balloonboard.org) but the license can be |
| 25 | +freely applied to any Open Hardware. |
| 26 | +In order to augment the text of the license it is accompanied by Notes and Appendices. The |
| 27 | +notes help to provide interpretation and guidance within the text of the license and the |
| 28 | +appendices contain more detailed discussions about the operation of the license and detail the |
| 29 | +types of Manufacturing Information and Design Documentation that might be provided as a part |
| 30 | +of any Open Hardware Design. The notes do not form part of the License but are intended to |
| 31 | +clarify the intention of the license. The Appendices are intended to provide uniformity to the way |
| 32 | +that hardware designs are released and managed when using this license. |
| 33 | +{Notes occur in the text of the License between curly brackets and in italics} |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +Purpose |
| 36 | +The purpose of this license is to protect the designers of the hardware from any form of litigation |
| 37 | +resulting from its design, manufacture, distribution or use. |
| 38 | +It is also the purpose of this license to ensure that the design remains Open in the sense detailed |
| 39 | +in the license and that manufacturers, distributors, and users are obliged to adhere to the Open |
| 40 | +principles of the design and to protect their rights to access the design as specified in the license. |
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