Software
Any code or firmware connected to your hardware is protected by copyright. You can grant others permission to use and improve your software through open source licenses. These licenses can also impose openness requirements on downstream users. In order to receive OSHWA certification, all software that is necessary for the operation of your hardware must be licensed under an OSI-approved license. If your project contains no software, no software license is necessary.
In almost all cases, software is inherently protected by copyright the moment that it is written. If your project incorporates software it is critical that you pick a license that allows people to make use of and improve it without infringing on your rights.
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Software
Take almost any example of software that is connected to a hardware project. The moment that the software code is typed into the editor, it is automatically protected by copyright. That means that if you do not license your software under a permissive license, the copyright protecting the software will, by default, prevent future users from building upon or improving it. If your project includes software, you must select an appropriate license in order to comply with the open source hardware definition.
Recommended Licenses for Software
Apache
Apache License 2.0 is permissive license whose main conditions require preservation of copyright and license notices. Contributors provide an express grant of patent rights. Licensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different terms and without source code.
Other open software licenses may be acceptable under the OSHW definition. We recommend these licenses due to their widespread acceptance, recognition, and ease of use. License description from choosealicense.org, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
GPL
GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3 is a strong copyleft license, the permissions of which are conditioned on making available complete source code of licensed works and modifications, which include larger works using a licensed work, under the same license. Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors provide an express grant of patent rights.
Other open software licenses may be acceptable under the OSHW definition. We recommend these licenses due to their widespread acceptance, recognition, and ease of use. License description from choosealicense.org, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
LGPL
GNU Library or “Lesser” General Public License (LGPL) is a copyleft license with permissions conditioned on making available complete source code of licensed works and modifications under the same license or the GNU GPLv3. Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors provide an express grant of patent rights. However, a larger work using the licensed work through interfaces provided by the licensed work may be distributed under different terms and without source code for the larger work.
Other open software licenses may be acceptable under the OSHW definition. We recommend these licenses due to their widespread acceptance, recognition, and ease of use. License description from choosealicense.org, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
MIT
The MIT license is a short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices. Licensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different terms and without source code.
Other open software licenses may be acceptable under the OSHW definition. We recommend these licenses due to their widespread acceptance, recognition, and ease of use. License description from choosealicense.org, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Mozilla
Mozilla Public License 2.0 is a weak copyleft license with permissions conditioned on making available source code of licensed files and modifications of those files under the same license (or in certain cases, one of the GNU licenses). Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors provide an express grant of patent rights. However, a larger work using the licensed work may be distributed under different terms and without source code for files added in the larger work.
Other open software licenses may be acceptable under the OSHW definition. We recommend these licenses due to their widespread acceptance, recognition, and ease of use. License description from choosealicense.org, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Examples of Software Licensing
Apertus AXIOM
Camera
License GPL
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Apertus AXIOM
Software License:
GPL
Why this license?
All of the software that operates the AXIOM is protected by copyright. The GPL license allows others to copy and build upon that software as long as they follow the GPL licensing requirements.
Mach 30 Shepard Test Stand
Test equipment
License Apache
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Mach 30 Shepard Test Stand
Software License:
Apache
Why this license?
The software related to the test stand is protected by copyright. The Apache license governs how others can copy and build upon the software.
Public Lab Papercraft Spectrometer Intro Kit
Spectrometer
License No Software
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Public Lab Papercraft Spectrometer Intro Kit
Software License:
No Software
Why this license?
There is no software created by Public Lab for the spectrometer, therefore there is no software to license.
Software has strong copyright protections that you may be able to leverage to prevent uses that do not comply with your expectations.
Note that the definition of open-source hardware specifies that you must allow modification and commercial re-use of your product, so you may not use licenses with no-derivatives or non-commercial use clauses.
