Nadine H. Tuhaimer

Fab Academy 2018 | How to make almost anything






Invention, Intellectual Property & Income

This week, we have to figure out if we want to register our work with a patent or a license.
Honestly, I don't think a patent is necessary for my project, because it does not involve an invention in my opinion. Patents are more for things that is hard to be made and created by everyone. My project, if it worked perfectly should be easily replicated in any Fablab and by anyone by following certain steps.

I have always been a fan of open source, I believe it is important to share the knowledge we have with everyone. That's why I decided to keep my project open source.
The cool thing about open source is that it gives users the right to use, study, change and distribute the software for any purpose, which can lead to a significant and fast growth for it, as individual can edit and share their modifications.

Creative Commons License

What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that empowers the creators of content to license their creations without a lot of legal hassle. Essentially, it tweaks the traditional "all rights reserved" formula to something closer to "some rights reserved". For instance, some artists might allow anyone to use their work, so long as they provide credit, while others do not want their work used for commercial purposes. By using these predefined licenses, they can do that easily and free of charge. Not only does this allow the artist to share their creations more easily, it also helps others find appropriate imagery, music, and much more to help enhance their own creations.

There are 6 types of the creative commons license, which are:

Attribution

The most basic and open of all Creative Commons licenses is the Attribution license. This allows you to freely use, edit, and distribute the work, so long as you give proper credit to the original artist. You can even use the work for commercial purposes.

The important thing to understand about the Creative Commons Attribution license is that you have to give "appropriate credit" to the creator of the original work. This is the base requirement in every license agreement, so it’s important to get right. Here's what is required to meet the standards of appropriate credit:

Now that sounds like a lot, but I rarely see copyright, license, and disclaimer notices included. That means you’re usually just giving credit and linking back to the original work.

The Attribution license is the base on which all Creative Commons license are built. No matter what other terms are involved, you are always required to give proper credit to the creator of the original work.

Attribution-ShareAlike

This license gives you all the same rights to use the work as the standard attribution license, with the additional caveat that you also license you work under the same terms. That means that you can use the initial work, and other people can use your work in the same way.

Attribution-NoDerivs

This license is a little more restrictive. While you can still freely use the work in both commercial and non-commercial work, you must not edit it in any way, in addition to giving proper attribution to the creator.

Attribution-NonCommercial

With the Attribution-NonCommercial license, you can use, edit and distribute the work so long as you properly credit the work’s creator. The difference here is that the work cannot be used for a commercial product.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

NonCommercial-ShareAlike licensing builds on the standard Attribution-NonCommercial license, with the addition that you work will be licensed in the exact same way.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

Finally we have the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, which restricts the work from commercial projects, and does not allow any edits to the original work.

I'd like my project to be licensed under "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike". This way everyone can use it for non-commercial purposes and whatever they edit or modify will also be under this license which maximizes the benefits.


Income

To be honest I wasn!t thinking about making profit with this project. I just wanted to do something that is fun from scratch.
Maybe in the future I can find a way to actually make money out of it but it was never in the plan.

Also since my project is quite similar to the Aquarius project that I found while I was researching what others have done before, I will not be able to market it. But I have a bigger plan to make the same project on a bigger scale that can cover a wall, maybe then I can market it but to do that I need to find a silent pump first :P
Stay tuned to the second version of the Katara!

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