ghostworks, you're right! open source software actually has stronger protection mechanism under copyright. copyright does not apply to electronic / physical designs.

tv-b-gone (the name) is trademarked. so while someone could make a direct clone, if they were selling it using the name there is some protection against that. that's really all we have in hardware. our trademarks and our copyrights for things like our code, documentation, etc.

all hardware has weak protection, as in pretty much none. maybe a patent in some cases of course. there isn't a license that will protect you if you want to release your hardware as "open source" or keep it closed - so we need to come up with other things if we want to share our hardware.

so far the social norms have worked out, we're not trying to clone each other out of business because we see the value in some of these unspoken rules. maybe it's going to end soon, we'll see - i wanted to write about what's going on now.

paying royalties isn't required. what's happen (hence the name, unspoken rules) is that large companies - sparkfun for example will offer a kit designer a royalty if they, sparkfun, are going to manufacture the design. do they need to do this? no, of course not. but that's what's going on. i believe because of this the oshw movement has grown fast, solid and more kit makers are sharing their hardware.

for the hobbyist and maker out there making a clone or something else that doesn't really apply. to be clear, you will not get "in trouble" for anything. hardware isn't generally protectable any way, so we have some social norms that have happened. will it work out? who knows - my article outlined what's happening.

hi not-really-anonymous :)

*i'm not going to run an oshw foundation, ever. i said that in the article and on the mailing list(s) we're both on. i'm not the best person for that at all.
*bruce perens self-nominated himself for his legal effort thing, i suggested he nominate someone besides himself.
*with makerbot and shapeways i think new york might just be a 3d printing center, we'll see!
*i'm glad you value our prices.
*it's interesting to hear your perception of sparkfun is that they mark up things 6x.

see you around!

vlm - that's a pretty good summary :) my article detailed what most of the oshw makers tend to do. as more folks join in, it will probably change. with physical hardware there is a social element that you get that's different than publishing code and emailing on mailing lists. when you make and share hardware you get a chance to meet the designer and/or the users of your hardware.

re: ham radio article, you're exactly right. you'd think there would be a ton of overlap, but it's very very small. there are lots of reasons for this i think and the communities are starting to interact more, but a lot of people are surprised. if you want to write that article drop me a line.

hiya - you can check out the dozens of other articles, talks and overviews for what you're looking for - just google around or you can also email me and i can point you to a few. this article was specifically about the rules we all seem to follow, not "how open source hardware filters down to users". if you're interested in a specific one about that, here's one i wrote about someone who took a design we worked on and funded a kickstarter, by doing open source we enabled people to build better, and innovate quicker:

Open Source Hardware is Kick-Starting Kickstarter!
http://blog.makezine.com/2011/10/20/how-open-source-hardware-is-kick-starting-kickstarter/