Re: FSF continuously harms Free Hardware

[Paul Sutton]

On 26/01/2022 03:39, Richard Stallman wrote:
> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
>
>    > Then let me be clear. By "free hardware" I mean that the following is
>    > available under a free license:
>
>    > * Gerber files for circuit boards
>    > * Boardview / gerber / design files
>    > * Verilog files for making your own versions of each chip
>    > * Built-in firmwares on chips must also be free. E.g. bootroms
>
> A gerber file alone is not adequate as source code for a circuit; it
> is more like compiled code.  But assuming that the "design files" are
> the source code, then I think this is a coherent definition of "free
> hardware".  I agree that all hardware ought to be free in this sense,
> some day.  https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html talks
> about this, and why it's too much to insist on for the short term.
>
> But many people say "free hardware" and they mean something very
> different, a much less stringent criterion.  They mean "comes with the
> specs needed to write free software for it".  I don't think that is
> enough to merit the term "free hardware".  What can we call it?
>
>    > (this last one is something that the FSF currently provides exceptions
>    > for in RYF)
>
> I just modified https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.html to better
> explain why we make this exception, why for the time being we must.
> Also how to keep it honest.

Hi Richard

This is great, thank you.   Another advantage with free designs and 
making the tools available is that anyone can then learn the system with 
little or no barriers to doing so.  It helps bridge the digital divide 
which is something that needs to be addrssed,  doing so with freer 
hardware means people start on the right foot by understanding free 
software and freehardware in the freedom sense going forward.

Would Arduino be an example, Anyone can copy the arduino chip / board 
design, or in fact make their own board and just use th chip.   The IDE 
is also fre download and under gpl.  I think the design is open source,

Hence the official Arduino boards cost $20+ but I can pick up clones 
much cheaper from companies such as banggood in China.

https://www.arduino.cc/


Paul
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Paul Sutton, Cert Cont Sci (Open)
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