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How OSE shares its work

Open Source Everything uses established licenses by material type. The goal is to let people study, improve, build, sell, and support OSE work without allowing covered improvements to disappear into a closed fork.

Hardware designs — CERN-OHL-S-2.0

Schematics, PCB layouts, CAD, bills of materials, and other OSE-created hardware design source use the strongly reciprocal CERN Open Hardware Licence. We chose it because it is written for hardware and keeps redistributed modified design source shareable while allowing physical products to be made and sold.

Read the CERN OHL

Software and firmware — GNU GPLv3-or-later

OSE-created software, firmware, tools, and tests use the GNU General Public License. We chose it because it is a familiar strong copyleft license: commercial use is allowed, but redistributed covered modifications must preserve the same freedoms.

Read the GNU GPL

Network services — GNU AGPLv3-or-later

A networked OSE service may use the GNU Affero GPL when its users need the corresponding source even when modified software is offered over a network rather than shipped as a copy.

Read the GNU AGPL

Documentation — CC BY-SA 4.0

OSE-created explanatory writing uses Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. We chose it because documentation can be copied, translated, and remixed with attribution while improvements remain shareable.

Read CC BY-SA

Boundaries

OSE names and logos are not granted by these copyright licenses. Third-party datasheets, symbols, photographs, and other imported material retain their own terms and notices. Individual repositories identify their exact scope and exclusions.

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