[OH Updates] Schematics and copyright

[Bruce Perens]

On 09/20/2011 02:15 PM, Alexander Chemeris wrote:
> Does it mean that schematics*is*  protected by copyright?
The problem is that copyright does not apply to a functional portion of 
a work, only the expressive portion. How a court treats this is best 
explained here in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Associates_Int._Inc._v._Altai_Inc.
That article might be difficult.

The effect of this on schematics is:
You probably can use copyright to restrict the distribution of copies of 
a schematic.
You probably can not use copyright to restrict what is built from that 
schematic.

People in our community often think we can use our licenses to do things 
that worked for software but do not work for hardware.
If you also have a patent on the design, your license has much more 
strength.

     Thanks

     Bruce

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