[OpenTRV-dev] V0.2-Arduino: getting started

[Mike Stirling]

On 01/04/13 17:35, Damon Hart-Davis wrote:
> On 1 Apr 2013, at 17:24, Kevin Wood wrote:
>
>> I guess we need to be careful that the licensing of any code we take from
>> Arduino-land (including their boot loader and libraries) is compatible
>> with our aims. I think the boot loader is GPLv2. Not sure if that is true
>> for any library code we might include.
> Very good point.
>
> I suspect that as we don't link to it that that is not an issue, but certainly warrants further thought.  Also the underlying h/w design...
>
> Rgds
>
> Damon
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenTRV-dev mailing list
> EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN
> http://lists.opentrv.org.uk/listinfo/opentrv-dev
IANAL, but from my reading around open hardware licenses the other day, 
I get the impression the hardware design license doesn't count for 
much.  The _functionality_ of a hardware design can be protected by 
patents, but not copyright, and in the case of Arduino they are instead 
relying on a trademark to protect their brand.  As long as we aren't 
doing a straight copy of the Arduino PCB layout (copyright), and perhaps 
if we say "popular Italian prototyping platform compatible" (trademark) 
then there is no problem.

Mike