The TAPR Open Hardware License Version 1.0 (May 25, 2007) Copyright 2007 TAPR - http://www.tapr.org/OHL

PREAMBLE

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 Open Hardware License ("OHL") 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 OHL for their Open Hardware project.

Like the GNU General Public License, the OHL is designed to guarantee your freedom to share and to create. It 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.

Unlike the GPL, the OHL 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 OHL design may not bring lawsuits claiming that design infringes their patents or other intellectual property.

The OHL 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 OHL, or a design based upon it? While the terms and conditions below take precedence over this preamble, here is a summary:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Introduction

2. Patents

3. Modifications

You may modify the Documentation, and those modifications will become part of the Documentation. They are subject to this Agreement, as are Products based in whole or in part on them. If you distribute the modified Documentation, or Products based in whole or in part upon it, you must email the modified Documentation in a form compliant with Section 4 to each Licensor who has provided an email address with the Documentation. Attempting to send the email completes your obligations under this Section and you need take no further action if any address fails.

4. Distributing Documentation

5. Making Products

6. NEW LICENSE VERSIONS

TAPR may publish updated versions of the OHL which retain the same general provisions as the present version, but differ in detail to address new problems or concerns, and carry a distinguishing version number. If the Documentation specifies a version number which applies to it and "any later version", you may choose either that version or any later version published by TAPR. If the Documentation does not specify a version number, you may choose any version ever published by TAPR. TAPR owns the copyright to the OHL, but grants permission to any person to copy, distribute, and use it in unmodified form.

7. WARRANTY AND LIABILITY LIMITATIONS

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