I am getting ready to release a hardware/software design to the public. Schematics, board layouts, source code, binaries -- everything the user might need for making one. This is 100% non-commercial; I just want to let the world have a fairly cool little design I made.
I want to pick a copyright/licensing scheme that maximizes the benefit to the user. Exactly how to do that is an interesting question that involved conflicting desires.
I would like someone to be able to make a commercial product based on the design with zero restrictions; no credit given, no source code, etc. -- but in a way that minimizes the chance of him screwing over other users of the design through the legal system.
I would like to minimize the chance that a user would end up basing his design on a re-branded non-credited version that doesn't have the latest bugfixes and enhancements, but I am reluctant to require a link to the project site. Encouraging but not requiring the link may do the trick.
I would like to encourage the users to submit improvements but again I don't want to exclude those who want to keep their added work proprietary for business reasons.
Comments on licenses I have looked at:
GNU General Public License
Free Art License
The BSD License
Creative Archive License
Maybe the "No problem Bugroff" license is what I am looking for...
Guy Macon