MIT License applied to hardware

The MIT license gives a lot of freedom to developers to use the intellectual property in any way they want.  This includes manufacturing, selling, and modifying the design. It does not require or restrict attribution. It does give the designer some protection for liability.  This is not compatible with more restrictive licenses.


The reasons I want to design this product include:

  • Teaching about electronics design
  • Create a low cost universal In Circuit Chip programmer

If some company picks up this design and produces it at a fair price then both objectives are met. This would create a well documented hackable device for a very reasonable price.

The MIT license for software and hardware is compatible with my goals.

If I want to integrate some other design with more a restrictive license, I would have to switch to the more restrictive license or separate the other design into a module or in the case of software a library.

I will continue to look at other software and hardware licenses.

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