Comment Re:Cheaper? (Score 2) 42
You're failing to differentiate between copyright and trademark.
Lets say I take a Free Software Foundation software product. Totally Libre, right? Now I want to fork it. Guess what? I can't use any of their trademarks. I can't claim it is made by the Free Software Foundation. I can't use their name in any way that makes it sound like I'm affiliated with them, or an official licensed source of their software. I can say I forked it from their thing, sure.
Source code is not a trade name. And even when the source is Free (as in libre) there is still huge value in knowing who you got it from. In fact, that sort of knowledge helps protect Freedom, and helps me make use of that Freedom.
I use some arduino tools in making my own products. But I don't need to lie and plaster their name all over it, I can put my own name on it. And when people look at the project history, they can see any open parts I forked or included, and who I got them from. For example, all my AVR based boards, I copy from arduino design when needed, and I always use their arduino.cc-branded programmer board. There is no limit to what I can copy, just a limit on when I can claim my device "is an adruino."
That said, on the hardware side arduino mostly just copies what the AVR data sheet tells you do with the chips.