Open Source Licenses

Every project you shall include a license. This way, users know their rights on what they are allowed to do with your work and any obligations related to it.

In general, you may use any of the OSI approved licenses.

The following list provide an overview of the licenses we use most frequently. Click on the license name to see the full license text.

CERN Open Hardware License

The CERN Open Hardware Licence (CERN OHL) promotes collaboration among hardware designers and support the freedom to use, study, modify, share and distribute hardware designs, and products based on those designs. The current version is version 2, and it comes in three variants:

• A strongly-reciprocal variant, CERN-OHL-S
• A weakly-reciprocal variant, CERN-OHL-W
• A permissive variant, CERN-OHL-P

Find user guides and more information here.

We mainly use the CERN-OHL-W for hardware projects (mechanical and electrical).

MIT Licenses

The MIT License is a permissive free software license that allows for extensive freedom regarding software usage and distribution. It is one of the simplest and most widely used open-source licenses.

We use the MIT license mostly for software library projects.

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a widely used free software license that emphasizes freedom and sharing. It is designed to ensure that software remains free for all users, promoting collaboration and preventing proprietary restrictions.

We use the GPL mostly for software applications. This way, anyone can run/modify/distribute the software, but they are not allowed to integrate it in closed-source projects. Derived works must remain open source.