How To Choose Your Open Source Hardware License

It’s always tricky when you create something: a complex project, a commercial product or just an hack and then you must decide what license you should use for that, for releasing it to the public.

The discussion regarding licensing open electronics or hardware in general has been carried on for years now, and many points of view have been shared across the community. Countless mail exchanges, group posts and – more importantly  - countless project experiences are on the field right now that we can take inspiration from.
 
Definitions:  are you sure you want to make Open Hardware?

First thing to do is to understand what you’re talking about. Two incredible resources to understand what open hardware (or, better, open source hardware) really is, you should really give a read to this page (open-source hardware definition and statement principles) containing the Open Source Hardware Definition according to OSHWA. The OSHWA (stands for Open Source Hardware Association) is just one, maybe the most important one, of the global players that are looking into the Open Source Hardware movement with a perspective of standardization, momentum building and association.