Open Scholarship

The distinction being made here is between “useful articles” and design files of those articles. The blueprint design files or patterns are considered “expression” and thus protected by copyright. The objects that are designed from them–the hardware–cannot be protected by copyright. So, again, I can seek protection from copyright for the design files, but not for the useful objects (the hardware) themselves. The hardware would be protected by patents, meaning that I cannot use the design files to produce hardware from those files unless I have permission to do so.

Copyright is about expression. It is the way things are said, or illustrated. That is what copyright is concerned about. Copyright cannot protect processes, facts, or data.

So what does this mean? Well it means in an open source system, that the design would be available in an easy-to-read non-proprietary platform. This is how the article puts it:

“The original design files for hardware are often in proprietary formats for expensive software tools. In this case, it’s helpful and encouraged to also offer versions of the design in alternative or intermediate formats that can be viewed or edited with common or free programs. For example, PDFs of circuit schematics, Gerbers for circuit board layouts, and IGES or STL files for mechanical objects. These allow people without access to expensive or proprietary software to make at least some use of your design. Please note, however, that this is not a substitute for releasing the original files – the core of open-source hardware practice.”

So it is releasing all the files, and making them easy to read, that would be adhering to copy-left principles rather than copyright.