Tender for GPL-compatible hardware licence development

On May 15, as part of the GoIT project, our Latvian partner EDI issued a tender for the development of a GPL-compatible hardware licence suitable for protecting silicon chips and hardware in general.

Although a reciprocal licence suitable for electronic projects already exists, namely the Open Hardware Licence v2 (OHLv2), this licence is not compatible with the GPL licences. The creation of a GPL-compatible hardware licence is important in order not to fragment the free and open-source community. The incompatibility between GPL and OHL is particularly critical for the design of complex devices such as silicon chips. Given the complexity of such designs, the probability of including or linking GPL-licensed software in the final design is very high. This is in contrast, for example, to simpler hardware, such as 3D printable objects or printed circuit boards (PCBs), which were the original scope of the OHL licence.

The rationale for the development of such a licence is explained in more details in the submitted GoIT proposal which is available for download here (see in particular page 8, 11 and 17).

Below is a summary of the relevant information to submit a tender:

• The tender notice is available here. The page will initially show the text in Latvian, but an almost complete English translation is available (click on "EN" in the upper right corner).
• The deadline for submission of tenders is on July 3 (this date was extended on May 28)
• To submit a tender, it is necessary to register with the Latvian e-tender system. The Latvian Electronic Procurement Department can be contacted here for assistance with registration.
• The tender can be submitted in English also without certified translation in Latvian (see on the tender portal under "Documents (actuals)" the file "Commission respond")
• For any further details please write to licence'at'f-si.org