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The Acheron Open Hardware License (AOHL) V1.4

1 Introduction

This license describes the terms and conditions under which you may use, copy, modify, redistribute the resources hereby published. It also describes how you may make and distribute products based on those project files. It is intended to offer a legal standard by which the authors of these files publish their works, stating their intended use, and establishes a contract between the authors and whoever wishes to use the files.

1.1 Definitions

"Resources" are the design files hereby published and thoroughly described in section 1.3 of this licence;

"License" means this contractual document;

"Licensee" means any person that wishes to use the resources, commercially or otherwise, to whom the licensing rights are given by this license;

"Licensor" or "Licensors" mean the legal person or people that own, author, create and modify the resources, publishing and distributing it under the conditions of this licence in the official repository;

"Repository" means a location (generally virtual) where any author has placed the resources for public use, and where it is believed the resources will remain publicly available for at least two years;

"Licensing Rights" refer to the rights granted explicitly from the Licensor the the lincensee through this license;

"Official repository" refers to the main repository of the Resources where the Licensors have decided to make them public;

"Product" means parts or the entirety of a device manufactured or built using the resources as published by the Licensor or a modified version of those resources;

1.2 Guide and intended use

This license was written to describe how anyone can make use of the files and resources included in the official repository, establishing a contractual relationship between Licensor and Licensee. The basic idea is that all resources can be used, copied, distributed and modified free of charge, commercially or not, under certain basic conditions. These will be explained in the below clauses to summarize their intent, and will be thoroughly explained through the license.

(I) By using, copying, modifying or distributing the resources hereby licensed, including making products and commercializing them, anyone with access to the resources automatically agrees to comply to this licence and its terms, effectively becoming a Licensee. Any violation of this licence immediately terminates the rights of the Licensee under this license.

(II) Any modifications of the files should be dated and thoroughly listed once such modifications are made public;

(III) No warranty is given and liability is limited. No responsibility is taken for faults or losses since the resources here are provided "as is". The Licensor shall have no liability for damages like economical or data losses. The use of the resources is given for free under the discretion of the Licensee, and it is the Licensee's responsibility to properly test and/or prototype all the resources before manufacture or commercial distribution. This condition still applies even if the Licensor has already prototyped the resources or parts of them.

(IV) The fact that the resources can be copied, modified and redistributed do not mean that the Licensor endorses or takes part in the development of other projects that may come from its copying, modifying or redistribution. It also does not imply the transfer or assignment of intellectual property or copyright rights to the Licensee;

(V) Special care must be taken so as not to make users and consumers believe derivative projects born from modifications of the official repositories are endorsed by the Licensors. If the Licensor has not taken part on those modifications not endorsed them, it as asked that the licensee makes sure to clarify to their audience and consumers that the products stemming from modified files are not endorsed by the licensor. This is for both Intellectual Property reasons and so as not to confuse anyone into believing that the Licensor takes part in the design of the derived projects or is affiliated with them. If you want your modifications to integrate the original files, you must submit them to Licensor revision and the Licensor must approve the modifications to be submitted to the official repository, obviously with due credit.

1.3 Resources

This license applies to all the resources published in the documentation or official repositories, including:

  • Printed Circuit Boards ("PCBs"), their schematic diagrams, designs, circuit board layouts and descriptive text;

  • The files used for PCBs manufacture like Gerber, SVG and PDF files that describe their mechanical and electrical profiles;

  • The Bill of Materials ("BoM"), that describes the components used to manufacture the PCBs, their quantities and models, published in a sheet file or table;

  • Parts modelling files like Computer Aided Design ("CAD") and Computer Aided Manufacture ("CAM") files, mechanical drawings and manufacturing, including but not limited to keyboard cases, keyboard plates, enclosures, keycap models and drawings;

  • Artworks and graphics, such as images and promotional material;

  • The descriptive Electronical CAD ("ECAD") or Mechanical CAD ("MCAD") files such as footprints, symbols, shapes, models and drawings, used in conjunction with ECAD/MCAD software to devise the resources;

This licence does not apply to:

  • The software, firmware or code, loaded into programmable devices like microprocessors and microcontrollers, not endorsed by the Licensor. It is perfectly possible that the user wishes to use a third-party firmware in conjunction with the hardware provided in this license; obviously the Licensor cannot represent or speak for that firmware since it was not of their authorship and the use of such firmware is generally subject to proper licensing, terms and conditions;

  • The trademarks involved in some components names, brands and logos (for instance, Cortex, ALPS, Cherry, Gateron and so on). All respective brands and logos are proprties of their respective owners; such brands are mentioned only as means of asserting compatibility and usage (for example, "the PCBs use Cortex processors and are compatible with MX-style switches");

2 Licensing conditions

This section defines the conditions under which the Licensor gives permission to the Licensee to use, copy, modify and distribute the resources hereby licensed, including for commercial purposes, given that the Licensee complies to the conditions in this section. Such permission is granted by the Licensor, directly to the Licensee, worlwide and without limitation of time.

Should the Licensee violate any of the requirements, their rights under this license are immediately terminated and the Licensor reserves the right to refuse the ex-Licensee any access or rights to the resources.

2.1 Copying and modification

The Licensor grants the Licensee worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive permission to copy and modify the resources, given that:

  • Modified resources carry legible and clear notices stating they are modified versions of the original project, with date and description of the modifications; the files before and after changes should also be made available. This includes created files such as manufaturing CAD files like STEP files, Gerber files, BoM lists, mechanical drawings and so on.

  • The Licensee makes the modfied resources available at the same level of abstraction than the original resources, preferably in the same format of the original resources and in open-source licenses and tools. If proprietary formats are used, open-format equivalent versions must also be included.

  • If the modifications are not meant to be incorporated to the Official Repositories, the Licensee must remove and delete all names, logos, graphics, URLs by which the Licensor, the Official Repositories and the Resources are known;

  • Modified resources have to be licensed under the terms and conditions of this license, a later version of this same license, or a compatible license. Recommended compatible licenses are the CERN OHL V1.2 the TAPR OHL or Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International. For more information on how the open-hardware licensing is currently made, see [1].

It is encouraged that the Licensee use the Git versioning system to manage the changes and publish their modifications at a hosting website that supports Git, like GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket. Furthermore, any contributions are welcome, and a pull-request submission is also encouraged.

2.2 Manufacture and distribution of products

The Licensor grants the Licensee a worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive permission to manufacture, distribute and sell any products based on the project's design files. It is required that the Licensee complies with the requirements in section 2.1 and, additionally, that:

  • The recipients of such products have easy means of access to a copy of the license and documentation.

  • The Licensee inform the Licensor the quantity, dates of selling or production and types of products manufactured.

Failure to comply with any of these requirements will immediately terminate the rights under this license.

2.3 Compliance recommendation

To comply with the licensing conditions, the Licensor recommends that the Licensee:

  • Include the license file used in a LICENSE file in the documentation package; this makes it easier to understand the licensing terms.

  • In the products, if the size and format allows, include a "Lincensed under the AOHL V1.4", substituting the name AOHL for the license used.

  • Have a change history included with the files, be it through a CHANGES file included in the documentation or through a commit history;

  • Have the original authors know about your distribution and modifications. This can be done via e-mail or through the pull-request system or including detailedly descripted commits.

In order to facilitate the compliance process, all these requirements can be easily fulfilled through the commit and pull request features of the git/GitHub platform.

For commercial licensing, the Licensee can contact the Licensor, describing which repository or resources the Licensee wishes to use, how many will be produced and the date of production.

3 General

3.1 Intellectual property and endorsement

Except for the licensing rights explicitly granted under this document, this license does not grant the transfer or assignment of any intellectual property rights to the Licensee. Furthermore, it does not imply that the Licensor endorses, sponsors, participates in or has knowledge of any modifications made to the original resources.

3.2 Names and logos

The Licensee shall not use nor make reference to any of the names, acronyms, abbreviations, images and logos under which the Licensor, the repository or the resources are known, save in so far as required to comply with this license.

Any permitted use of reference shall be explicit and factual and shall in no way suggest endorsement by the Licensor or the participation in the development, preparations, or any construction process of the modified resources.

3.3 Warranty

The resources, the documentation and the repository are freely and publicly provided in its present condition; no warranties are implied, including merchantability, sactisfatory quality, non-infringement of third-party rights, and fitness for any particular porpose or use other than the ones expressly stated.

The Licensor does not guarantee, and will not make representation, that modified documentation or resources will not infringe any copyright, patent or proprietary rights. The entire risk of quality, use, and performance of any product shall rest with the Licensee.

3.3 Liability

The Licensor will not have any liability for direct, indirect, accidental, incidental, punitive or consequential damages, arising from the usage of the documentation (modified or not) or the resources (modified or not). This includes, but is not limited to, procurement of goods or services, loss of use or data or profits, negligence, infringement of jurisdication, laws, legal requirements.

The Licensee shall free the Licensor from any liability, costs, expenses, fees and taxes in relation to the use of resources or documentation.

4 References

  • [1] Toward Open Source Hardware. Ackermann, John R. University of Dayton Law Review, winter 2009 volume 34 number 2. Available at this link. Last accessed september 1, 2021.

5 Changelog

September 2, 2021

  • New link for Ackerman's article (last one was 404).
  • New References chapter
  • Removed nominal citing from the Licensors
  • Moved to a more general language so that the license can be used in other projects and not only Acheron
    • Removed nominal mentions of "the Project" and the licensors
    • Removed references to "you" and "us", using a non-personal language