Category: General

Well in my last post I told about  our hardware designs/firmware/docs going fully open. Some guy out there asked me the other day in a mail if something happened, and I really felt he hoped something bad was going on, but nothing happened. And I told him. He probably got disappointed.  Well except for a very cold summer and some happiness over some very nice days in the sun this week, everything is moving on as usual here at the Paradise of the Frog.  Hard work. Many hours a day.

The fact on this matter is that I’m not after big profits. I have never been. I am a good guy and want to feel like I am to.  My goal is to have enough money to pay my bills and have as fun as possible doing so.  Some think that attitude is bad. But I have lived long enough now to know it isn’t. All them shiny cars and waterfront houses and money in the bank is probably fun to. But it is not just my bag of fun. Yes to maximize money you should probably protect as much as possible. Well I’m the good guy…  You even get a meal and a beer without charge if you come around to my house. And some open hardware and some software.

I truly believe that the world becomes a better place if we share things with each other.  It is in any case impossible to build anything at all without building it on others achievements. It does not matter how clever the things we come up with is. It is always built upon other peoples work. I think we all should recognize that. By sharing that is.

So just like VSCP is open source licensed the modules we make and sell at Grodans Paradis AB/Paradise of the Frog  is now under an open source license. This includes drawings, documentation and firmware including sample code etc.

The license we selected in the end is the The Artistic License 3.0. You can read all about it here.  In short it means

You are free:

• to Share—to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and
• to Remix—to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution—You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work.)

With the understanding that:

• Waiver—Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
• Other Rights—In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:
  • your fair dealing or fair use rights;
  • the author’s moral rights; and
  • rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.

So if you use the stuff we make in your own products you have to give credit to us. If you don’t want to do that. You should contact us to arrange another license.

A lot of hardware i brewing here.  I have put some of it up on GitHub already and a lot more will follow.  If you want to support this buy something from the Frogshop or contribute code. It is as simple as that really.

Cheers
Åke HedmanGrodans Paradis AB / Paradise of the Frog