I’m uncertain if the GPLv3 [1], or something from Creative Commons [3], like the CC-BY-SA [2] license, would be appropriate for open source hardware. I’ve come across the CERN-OHL-S [4], which appears interesting, but I’ve never encountered it in the wild, so I’m wary of it’s apparent obscurity.

References
  1. Type: Webpage. Title: “GNU General Public License”. Publisher: “GNU Operating System”. Accessed: 2025-09-04T21:29Z. URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html.
  2. Type: Webpage. Title: “Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International”. Publisher: “Creative Commons”. Accessed: 2025-09-04T21:30Z. URI: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en.
  3. Type: Webpage. Title: “About CC Licenses”. Publisher: “Creative Commons”. Accessed: 2025-04-09T21:31Z. URI: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/.
  4. Type: Text. Title: “CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Strongly Reciprocal”. Publisher: “CERN”. Accessed: 2025-04-09T21:33Z. URI: https://gitlab.com/ohwr/project/cernohl/-/wikis/uploads/819d71bea3458f71fba6cf4fb0f2de6b/cern_ohl_s_v2.txt.
  • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksOP
    2·
    14 hours ago

    […] OP tell me your conclusion for best hardware licence when you get there.

    I think I’m just going to go with CERN-OHL-S [1]. I have yet to find anything better, and @ganymede@lemmy.ml raised some good points regarding it [2], imo.

    References
    1. Type: Webpage. Title: “GNU General Public License”. Publisher: “GNU Operating System”. Accessed: 2025-09-04T21:29Z. URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html.
    2. Type: Post (Comment). Author: “@ganymede@lemmy.ml”. Publisher: [Type: Post. Title: “What license(s) do you recommend, and/or not recommend, for open source hardware, and why?”. Author: “@Kalcifer” (“@Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works”). Publisher: [“Lemmy”. “sh.itjust.works”. “Open Source” (“!opensource@lemmy.ml”)]. Published: 2025-09-04T21:35:12Z. URI: https://sh.itjust.works/post/45415245.]. Published: 2025-09-05T01:57:25Z. Accessed: 2025-09-16T05:42Z. URI: https://sh.itjust.works/post/45415245/20822528.

      imo i wouldn’t overlook CERN too much due to apparent obscurity. that’s CERN as in WWW & LHC.

      plus it’s specifically designed for hw, unlike most of the others which are more likely to lean sw centric? […]