How Open Source Hardware Is Kick-Starting Kickstarter 44
ptorrone writes "Imagine waking up and seeing your design for a circuit being used in a product by someone who never contacted you to ask if it was okay. You will not get any payment for their usage of your design, they've raised over $31,000, and they're selling something you worked really hard on. You have no control over what someone does with something you made. Is this a nightmare? Perhaps for some, but this is actually a dream come true for others who do open-source hardware. MAKE magazine profiles a maker using open-source hardware for his now-funded project and looks at others using open hardware for their works."
Greed (Score:5, Interesting)
If I didn't have the resources and someone else did, good for them. This is not hypothetical: I publicly posted an idea a while back to build a device for myself, and a couple of years later, it was a successful consumer electronic product someone else made. Someone else did the production and marketing, and then a big company eventually bought the company out. Yeah, I had the idea and did the initial design, but I wouldn't have marketed it. So I'm glad someone else was able to get what they wanted.
People who want to hoard knowledge are bad for society. If you actually will act upon it, great, you need some protections like patents or whatever. But if it's just something you enjoy doing, be happy with doing what you enjoy. Life's not all about money...
I just did this yesterday... (Score:4, Interesting)
I donated to an open source hardware group called "Global Village Construction Set".
I hate the whole "Global Village" concept. I love the idea of sitting down and designing hardware to be cheap to make, and giving away the designs.
And just like open source, you can improve on the original designs, fix any flaws, etc.