In brief

OHANDA Label for Open Source Hardware

The proposed solution with OHANDA is a label in the sense of a trademark. The label will connect the 4 Freedoms with any kind of physical device through OHANDA. Think the label like other common certificates such as FCC or CE mark (like in this faked expample).

Why can't we just use any copyleft license?

Copyleft is legally based on copyright, which can not be effectively enforced in the physical world. The equivalent would be patents, but patenting hardware to make it open is slow and expensive.

How Does It Work?

1. The designer applies a copyleft or public domain license to the product designs and documentation.
2. The designer registers in (as a person or as an organization) and gets an unique producer ID. By registering at OHANDA, the designer accepts the terms and conditions to use the OHANDA label by granting the 4 Freedoms to the user.
3. The designer will then register the product and receive a unique product ID. After doing so, the designer may apply the label to the product.

The OHANDA label and the unique OHANDA registration key (OKEY) is printed/engraved on each copy of the device. So the link to the documentation and to the contributors travels with the physical device itself and make it a visible piece of open source hardware. With the OHANDA registration key on the product the user will be linked back to the designer, the product description, design artifacts and the public domain or copyleft license through the web based service offered by OHANDA.

Empowered by the 4 Freedoms, the user may examine the product and develop it further. For further information, please check our FAQ.