>>>Footprints are not subject to copyright either. >>>They are not creative: ... they are simple data >>>gathered from JEDEC, IPC and manufacturer sources.
Copyright is designed to protect the "original expression of ideas, and not the ideas themselves". For example, if you take a photograph of the insides of your computer you are automatically the Copyright owner of the photograph. Your original expression is the overexposed and blurry image. In the same way that JEDEC/IPC/manufacturers own the Copyrights on the datasheets/specifications they produce, you own the specification (schematic and layout files) you produce of your design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Idea-expression_dichotomy_and_the_merger_doctrine Everything but the actual circuit connection ideas can be Copyrighted since "copy[right] covers only the expression of the definition, not the circuit itself". In other words, someone can redo your work and create something nearly identical and they will be the Copyright owners of that work. http://features.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1999-06-22-005-05-NW-LF http://www.armisteadtechnologies.com/copy-pcb.shtml http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW >>I can be wrong, but, anything that's been designed >>by an author, has authorship, and it makes it have copyright. That is the most sensible attitude. >It's not worth worrying about: really. Why risk it. Anything that can lead to FUD from others and dissuade use of KiCad should be avoided. I would be willing to donate all my library work into the Public Domain under, for example, the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ If the original authors of library elements cannot be contacted simply ask users of the KiCad mailing list to recreate schematic symbols and module footprints. I'm sure many users would be willing to help out and contribute. As noted earlier, it is the expression of an idea that is Copyrightable so it is mostly a simple matter of redoing the work. -Matt On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 4:28 AM, Brian F. G. Bidulock <bidul...@openss7.org> wrote: > Miguel, > > On Thu, 22 Mar 2012, Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo wrote: > >> I can be wrong, but, anything that's been designed by an author, has >> authorship, and it makes it have copyright. > > Sorry, it doesn't work that way. > > --brian > > -- > Brian F. G. Bidulock ¦ The reasonable man adapts himself to the ¦ > bidul...@openss7.org ¦ world; the unreasonable one persists in ¦ > http://www.openss7.org/ ¦ trying to adapt the world to himself. ¦ > ¦ Therefore all progress depends on the ¦ > ¦ unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw ¦ > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp