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To what extent do the ideas of free software extend to hardware? Is it a moral obligation to make our hardware designs free, just as it is to make our software free? Does maintaining our freedom require rejecting hardware made from nonfree designs?

Free software is a matter of freedom, not price; broadly speaking, it means that users are free to use the software and to copy and redistribute the software, with or without changes. More precisely, the definition is formulated in terms of the four essential freedoms.

Applying the same concept directly to hardware, free hardware means hardware that you are free to use and to copy and redistribute with or without changes. But, since there are no copiers for hardware, aside from keys, DNA, and plastic objects exterior shapes, is the concept of free hardware even possible? Well, most hardware is made by fabrication from some sort of design. The design comes before the hardware.

Thus, the concept we really need is that of a free hardware design. Thats simple: it means a design that permits users to use the design (i.e., fabricate hardware from it) and to copy and redistribute it, with or without changes. The design must provide the same four freedoms that define free software. Then free hardware means hardware with an available free design.

About

Dr. Richard Stallman launched the free software movement in 1983 and started the development of the GNU operating system in 1984. GNU is _free software_: everyone is free to copy it and redistribute it, with or without changes. The GNU/Linux system is used on tens of millions of computers today.

People first encountering the idea of free software often think it means you can get a copy gratis. Many free programs are available for zero price, since it costs you nothing to download your own copy, but thats not what free means here. (In fact, some spyware programs such as Flash Player and Angry Birds are gratis although they are not free.) Saying libre along with free helps clarify the point.

For hardware, this confusion tends to go in the other direction; hardware costs money to produce, so commercially made hardware wont be gratis (unless it is a loss-leader or a tie-in), but that does not prevent its design from being free/libre. Things you make in your own 3D printer can be quite cheap, but not exactly gratis since you will have to pay for the raw materials. In ethical terms, the freedom issue trumps the price issue totally, since a device that denies freedom to its users is worth less than nothing.

The terms open hardware and open source hardware are used by some with the same concrete meaning as free hardware, but those terms downplay freedom as an issue. They were derived from the term open source software, which refers more or less to free software but without talking about freedom or presenting the issue as a matter of right or wrong. To underline the importance of freedom, we make a point of referring to freedom whenever it is pertinent; since open fails to do that, lets not substitute it for free.

Ethically, software must be free; a nonfree program is an injustice. Should we take the same view for hardware designs?

See original here:
Why We Need Free Digital Hardware Designs