While I've been sharing a lot of my work on muffsy.com, I've never really clarified how my view is on people using my work (or derivates of it). This is now changing.
I've decided to release all of my content (barring a few exceptions) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
What does it mean?
It means that everything on muffsy.com, except where specifically stated, is open source. You have the right to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works. I, as the licensor, cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
If you're going to use any of the content on muffsy.com, you will have to adhere to these conditions:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
- You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
- No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
There are also some conditions for muffsy.com to follow. Most notably is that the shared information must be in an open format. The only possible violation to this are my Autodesk Eagle design files. They can be used, but not always processed, by the free version of Autodesk Eagle. They can also be opened and edited (although not always perfectly) in the open source tool KiCad.
What are the exceptions?
Update, 2019-04-05:
All published designs are open source and can be used freely for fun and profit. If you need to reverse engineer anything, it's probably not open source. By all means, do ask if you're in doubt.
The fact that the schematics are open source will of course allow you to design your own PCBs for any desired use, as long as you comply with the terms of the license.
The only exceptions to the Creative Commons on muffsy.com is for a few of my PCB designs, mainly variants of those that I'm currently selling. They are free for personal or non-commercial use, but you cannot use them commercially without my approval.
At the time of writing these are the only exceptions:
If not stated otherwise, everything is free to use as described above. That's right, text, pictures, schematics, design files. The lot!