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[sloe]

howdy, y'all,

I kind of alluded to this in the thread about touchscreens, but I've got a question I don't know where to find the answer for.

There are a lot of add-on ideas that we've come up with for the XO, for example, the touchscreen and GPS, that I would like to delve into and see what I can make happen.  When I follow my train of thought out, I strike upon the idea of producing and selling some of these things, and possibly creating the XO store that has been mentioned elsewhere.

By creating add-on hardware that is designed specifically for the XO and offering it for sale, would I be violating any licenses, or otherwise getting in the sights of OLPC's lawyers?  I tried to find some info in the OLPC wiki, but that darned thing is practically useless unless you know what you're looking for.

This is a first for me, so I'm not really sure about the legalities surrounding it.  Most of the development I've done has been government sanctioned, so we didn't really care about intellectual property, patents, or other trade secrets.   Hmmmm....patents.  That could be my brick wall.  I had completely forgotten about those.  Do I need to find my self a good pro-bono patent lawyer, or a good patent troll?

Ugh, I'm not so sure this is a good idea anymore.  I would appreciate any information, though, in case I change my mind for the 39th time 

-sloe

[mattd]

Unless you publish hardware info that OLPC has purposefully kept secret then OLPC doesn't have a leg to stand on legaly.

And, honestly, why wouldn't they want to have people out there making 3rd party devices to make their *ahem* product more usable?

You may want to email the guy that makes the solar panels for the XO since he's doing exactly what you're talking about. Find his email adress here.

[AuntiMame]

By creating add-on hardware that is designed specifically for the XO and offering it for sale, would I be violating any licenses, or otherwise getting in the sights of OLPC's lawyers?

No. (that was easy wasn't it  )

Unless, like mattd mentions, you publish something that doesn't belong to OLPC. OLPC has placed everything they "own" under Creative Commons (attribution & share). I think that the actual motherboard wiring is the intellectual property of Quanta, but there is nothing to prevent you from publishing info on "how to connect to" that hardware.

In a bit of blatant self-promotion: I am opening an online store for XO accessories. If you (or anyone else reading this) want to contact me about selling your products please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Aunti