Open source hardware licensing: a lowRISC experience report
summary
lowRISC reports sticking to upstream licenses (original Rocket was BSD then Apache) and now releases new IP under Apache 2.0, uses CC‑BY for documentation, and drops Solderpad after adoption friction. contributor policy uses a CLA with sign‑off implemented as a git “Signed‑off‑by” plus bot verification to avoid manual paperwork. preference for permissive licenses reflects legal-review costs, patent clarity in Apache, and pragmatic scaling (team growing from ~6 to ~10 FTEs while collaborating with Google and IBEX work).
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:00Criteria for choosing a license
- 6:00Can you enforce a license
- 9:40Observations
- 10:55Where we are now
- 12:03Contributor license agreements
- 14:49Added risk
- 15:56Resources
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