The Open Community License (OCL) is our answer to the gaps left by traditional software licenses when applied to physical hardware.

It is designed to be concise and human-readable (it fits on one page) and it even includes practical examples linked directly in the document so you know exactly what you can and cannot do.

For Makers & Hackers: You have complete freedom to use, modify, and share derivatives back to the community.

For Businesses: You can build and modify machines based on the source designs for your internal production (e.g., a custom print farm). Unlike vague “Non-Commercial” licenses, OCL explicitly allows you to make money using these designs to run your business; you just can’t make money selling the machines.

The Restriction: You cannot commercially exploit the design files (selling the product or remixes) without a separate agreement.

The Protection: It includes an explicit patent license grant, protection against AI data mining, and a codified Right-to-Repair.

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[W]e are missing a simple (and I cannot stress this enough) license that would be fully open for non-commercial and still open for internal commercial use. Basically we had to either choose a fully open or copyleft license which removes all control or a non-commercial licence which restricts all business use.

Furthermore, most licenses were source code focused and hardly usable for data (graphical or technical) let alone hardware itself. Based on that we had to mix and match licenses that can sort of live together in one product each for different part. OCL should remove these restrictions. Keep things open, if needed all under the same license, and still keep control to exclude people who don’t play fair.