On 28/04/15 10:23, Matt Rhys-Roberts wrote:
> I'm interested in general advice and experiences on developing prototype=
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> devices using e.g. Arduino or other OS platforms, then transferring the=20
> required hardware and evolved firmware to a custom PCB for commercial=20
> production.
>=20
> If OS libraries are used in the firmware, must they be declared/provided=
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> with the final product, even if the end user has (or should have) zero=20
> interest in further developing the product?
>=20

I'm newbie in electronics, but I have some experience programming and
specially with open source.

Unfortunately the answer to your question is: it depends.

It depends on the open source license. If the code is using a well know
license, you can probably find good tips online (eg, MIT is very
permissive, BSD you need to add a mention in the documentation, LGPL you
can get away with just a mention as long as you don't modify the LGPL
code, GPL you need to distribute the code with the project and it may
even require *your code* to be included as well under that license).

It also depends on the author enforcing the license. Open source
licenses follow copyright law, so if you don't comply with the
conditions, you don't have permission to use the code. That doesn't
necessarily mean anybody is going to enforce that, but it could happen
(specially when the GPL is involved [1]). It may look bad if your
product abuses open source though.

Regarding OSHW, I don't know of any case were a open source hardware
license has been enforced. Protecting hardware seems to be trickier than
protecting software.

Regards,

Juan

[1]: eg, http://linux-sunxi.org/GPL_Violations

--=20
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