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Author Topic: How to avoid abuse of design once donated to Open Source?  (Read 8359 times)

Offline Anomaly

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  • Posts: 1
How to avoid abuse of design once donated to Open Source?
« on: June 09, 2008, 03:40:21 AM »
Hello,
I've a very interesting design on the table.
I'm going to deposit it to the public into open source.

how does one go about completely 100% ensuring that this design is not stolen and patented by someone and hidden away or produced and overcharging people for it, or used in an abusive manner?

I'd like to put it into the public arena for anyone anywhere to be able to develop further into more and more efficient versions, using different materials etc..

But how is this done without someone taking the design and patenting it if I do not patent it first?

thanks.
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Offline exxcomm0n

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  • Posts: 791
Re: How to avoid abuse of design once donated to Open Source?
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2008, 06:18:00 AM »
Publish it.

In as many ways, shapes and forms that are possible.

Do not discount paper in favor of electronic media as it's REAL easy to change data, but MUCH harder to track down pieces of paper handed out on street corners or posted on light posts.

Record a press release on DVD-R and make copies and send it out to the media. Keep the original in a safe place. Send it to various GLOBAL news agencies via email and ask them to print it.

Once an idea is even written about, the person who wrote about it has a certain amount of time to patent it, and then it becomes un-patentable, to my knowledge.

I have HEARD this, I don't know it. Please do your own research to verify.

The waterbed was an unpatentable device because Robert Heinlein wrote about it in some sci-fi stories.
I think that I read that on the 'net somewhere..... ;)

I look forward to your release!

Oh!

And if possible, build a working model. In fact, LOTS of them if you can.
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orbs

  • Guest
Re: How to avoid abuse of design once donated to Open Source?
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2008, 01:55:27 PM »
Quote from: Anomaly on June 09, 2008, 03:40:21 AM
how does one go about completely 100% ensuring that this design is not stolen and patented by someone and hidden away or produced and overcharging people for it, or used in an abusive manner?

As mentioned above, publish it. If you do it on your own Web site, make sure it is archived/mirrored by others (for example IA) or let it add to the Internet Archive (Contributions). To do it anonymously I would guess that a published torrent (like on mininova) would work (I would guess that the hash in a torrent might allow for proof enough that it was published by a certain date to count as prior art if somebody wanted to patent it after, but I do not know for certain).

However, if you put it in the public domain, then you cannot control it anymore, even if somebody "abuses" it. If you want, for example, to retain your copyright then you cannot put it in the public domain (but you can use licenses with few restrictions, like the ones on CC).
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Offline BRAHMA

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  • Posts: 22
Re: How to avoid abuse of design once donated to Open Source?
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2008, 05:22:44 PM »
copyright your material and maybe even patent it if you got time and money. 

you can still open-source it.

you cant stop the abuse but you can protect your right to be credited for the work
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