Saw a front page discussion on fatwallet about homemade digital antennas, and this was one of the links in the thread:
Towards the bottom it shows a gray block describing in limited detail its protection under the GPL. It claims protection regarding the design, schematics, and diagrams. I havn't read through much of the GPL yet, but if people are already successfully registering designs for protection under it, this endeavor might have gotten a whole lot easier.
Edit: More info.
Right from the GPL FAQ: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/license...erThanSoftware
It seems as though mechanical designs could easily be covered by this, but the release document would have to be written almost identically to a patent and contain examples of what is often termed "preferred embodiment" in the patent.
Towards the bottom it shows a gray block describing in limited detail its protection under the GPL. It claims protection regarding the design, schematics, and diagrams. I havn't read through much of the GPL yet, but if people are already successfully registering designs for protection under it, this endeavor might have gotten a whole lot easier.
Edit: More info.
Right from the GPL FAQ: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/license...erThanSoftware
It seems as though mechanical designs could easily be covered by this, but the release document would have to be written almost identically to a patent and contain examples of what is often termed "preferred embodiment" in the patent.