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Add new license for balloon open hardware
Signed-off-by: akugarg <[email protected]>
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The Balloon Open Hardware License (BOHL)
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Version 0.2 For Discussion
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The Text of this License is Copyright © 2006 2007 iTechnic Ltd
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Permission is granted to copy this license unmodified and use it to protect Open Hardware
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Designs.
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Preamble
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This license agreement covers hardware designed, manufactured and distributed on an open basis.
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The license outlines the Terms and Conditions placed on the use of the design. When licensing
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Open Hardware it is important to note that there is a significant distinction between Open
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Hardware and Open Software particularly with respect to both the design process and the
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replication process.
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Firstly the design and replication of hardware is different because there are intermediate steps in
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the processes that are valuable in their own right. Secondly the process of replication can involve
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considerable time, cost and expertise. For these reasons it is not appropriate to simply transfer
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licenses that have validity in the software domain (such as the GPL) to the hardware domain.
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This license is intended to establish an Open Design approach in the hardware domain while
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building in practical safeguards, which are necessary for the design and manufacture of hardware,
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where manufacturers take a financial and legal risk when replicating Open Hardware and where
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the physical product must conform to approvals if its sale is to be legal. It is also important to
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protect designers from issues of liability particularly as many designers may be working as
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individuals and therefore not protected by an employer.
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The license is written to apply to any type of hardware produced using an Open Hardware design
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process. It has originated from the Balloon Project (www.balloonboard.org) but the license can be
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freely applied to any Open Hardware.
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In order to augment the text of the license it is accompanied by Notes and Appendices. The
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notes help to provide interpretation and guidance within the text of the license and the
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appendices contain more detailed discussions about the operation of the license and detail the
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types of Manufacturing Information and Design Documentation that might be provided as a part
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of any Open Hardware Design. The notes do not form part of the License but are intended to
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clarify the intention of the license. The Appendices are intended to provide uniformity to the way
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that hardware designs are released and managed when using this license.
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{Notes occur in the text of the License between curly brackets and in italics}
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Purpose
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The purpose of this license is to protect the designers of the hardware from any form of litigation
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resulting from its design, manufacture, distribution or use.
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It is also the purpose of this license to ensure that the design remains Open in the sense detailed
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in the license and that manufacturers, distributors, and users are obliged to adhere to the Open
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principles of the design and to protect their rights to access the design as specified in the license.
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key: bohl-0.2
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short_name: BOHL-0.2
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name: The Balloon Open Hardware License v0.2
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category: Permissive
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spdx_license_key: LicenseRef-scancode-bohl-0.2
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owner: The Balloon
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text_urls:
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- https://web.archive.org/web/20140426215620/http://www.balloonboard.org/docs/Balloon_License_0v2.pdf
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ignorable_copyrights:
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- Copyright © 2006 2007 iTechnic Ltd
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ignorable_holders:
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- iTechnic Ltd
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ignorable_urls:
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- www.balloonboard.org

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