opencores.org - Question on project licensing?

[Pacbell User]

I would like to contribute a multi-cycle (slow, but area-compact)
(Hehe, someone else already released a pipelined integer-divider,
to the opencores.org repository. Gence I'm marketing my divider as
'compact'!)
I am reading through the FAQ, and one part has me a bit confused...

===

The 'licensing' portion -- I understand that the 'GPL' license
is fairly restrictive in that it forces derivative works to be
distributed in documented *AND* modifiable form.

My goal is to let *anyone* use my integer-divider as they see
fit. If they want to use it in a closed commercial project, that's
fine. It seems like a GPL-release cannot be used in a closed
project, is that correct?

So under which license should I release my divider? LGPL, BSD, etc.?!?

....

Also, is Xilinx Webpack 5.1ISE the final version that will run
under Win98se (no flames please)? The newer versions refuse to install.

 

[Antti Lukats]

I would like to contribute a multi-cycle (slow, but area-compact)
(Hehe, someone else already released a pipelined integer-divider,
to the opencores.org repository. Gence I'm marketing my divider as'compact'!)
I am reading through the FAQ, and one part has me a bit confused...

could I have a sneak preview of your divider ?
(I want violate the license, whatever you will choose later)

and you are right about licensing (that is confusing)
GPL is what people think 'free' but in some way its more restrictive than
commercial licenses.

antti

 

[Martin Schoeberl]

BSD licencense is popular, but the original had some problems see:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html
So get a copy of the 'new' version or state it like suggested 'revised BSD
license'.
Martin

 

[Rob Judd]

Martin,

Copyright? Copyleft? Hey, if I do an I-Q converter, can I use
CopyOrthogonal?

Rob (at 90 degrees to reality)

 

[Martin Schoeberl]

Rob,

Copyright? Copyleft? Hey, if I do an I-Q converter, can I use
CopyOrthogonal?

I didn't invent these words and I find them also strange ;-)

Martin

 

[Rudolf Usselmann]

I would like to contribute a multi-cycle (slow, but area-compact)
(Hehe, someone else already released a pipelined integer-divider,
to the opencores.org repository. Gence I'm marketing my divider as
'compact'!)
I am reading through the FAQ, and one part has me a bit confused...

===

The 'licensing' portion -- I understand that the 'GPL' license
is fairly restrictive in that it forces derivative works to be
distributed in documented *AND* modifiable form.

My goal is to let *anyone* use my integer-divider as they see
fit. If they want to use it in a closed commercial project, that's
fine. It seems like a GPL-release cannot be used in a closed
project, is that correct?

So under which license should I release my divider? LGPL, BSD, etc.?!?

Look at some other IP cores (perhaps some of mine) at
OpenCores. I faced the same problem that you are facing,
I wanted to protect myself but not limit the usage of
any of my IP cores. So I created my own "license". It's
on top of each of my files ...

Best Regards,
rudi

 

[Jon Masters]

The 'licensing' portion -- I understand that the 'GPL' license
is fairly restrictive in that it forces derivative works to be
distributed in documented *AND* modifiable form.

LGPL will not really help you here and I am not really sure how you
would apply it to a hardware design in any case. Can you LGPL license
hardware designs and treat the situation is if you were linking against
a library thus being ok with binary distribution? Does that really work?

I personally prefer the GPL over most other licenses however in this
case either having no license or a BSD style one will probably suffice.

Jon.