sublicensing USB ID's

General discussions about V-USB, our firmware-only implementation of a low speed USB device on Atmel's AVR microcontrollers
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butrus.butrus
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sublicensing USB ID's

Post by butrus.butrus » Sun Nov 04, 2007 9:59 am

Hi!

I would like ask if it is possible to sublicense the USB ID's? I use the provided VID/PID's according to the "USB-License.txt" file, i.e. I set my own string identifiers as required, but: I want to define a PROTOCOL, that other people could reuse. It would be nice, If I could let the people use MY string identifiers so that utilities I PROVIDED could be used with any other implementation of this protocol. (i.e. the implementation doesn't have to be exactly the same, but it has to conform with some protocol specification)

So my question is: is it possible to "sublicence" my manufacturer/product string identifiers (used according to the "USB-License.txt") so that people can reuse my utilities without changing them with their own implementation of some protocol?

Thanks!

(P.S. I'm asking here, because this could be of interrest to other people...)

christian
Objective Development
Objective Development
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Post by christian » Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:38 am

If you have control over the manufacturer string's domain, you are responsible for it. If you allow others to use it, that's your (potential) problem, and that of those people who use it.

It might still be a good idea to get your own Product ID in this case because you don't have to worry about string identifiers and sharing of IDs on Windows may have unexpected consequences.

You can get a PID of your own with a AVR-USB Hobby License for 10 EUR, or you can get one from one of the other sources on the web.

butrus.butrus
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:57 pm
Contact:

Post by butrus.butrus » Sun Nov 04, 2007 1:12 pm

christian wrote:If you have control over the manufacturer string's domain, you are responsible for it. If you allow others to use it, that's your (potential) problem, and that of those people who use it.


ok, thanks!

It might still be a good idea to get your own Product ID in this case because you don't have to worry about string identifiers and sharing of IDs on Windows may have unexpected consequences.

You can get a PID of your own with a AVR-USB Hobby License for 10 EUR, or you can get one from one of the other sources on the web.


Well, ATM it's about a small hobby project, so I don't plan buy PID just now. I just want to publish the project and have everyone the freedom to reuse it in some reasonable way, so I'll probably stick with "sublicensing" now...

(I don't use windows, so this is no problem for me...)

BTW, If I buy the "AVR-USB Hobby License" and publish the project as GPL, are there any limitations as what can I do with the PID (i.e. how many products I or others may build, etc.)?

christian
Objective Development
Objective Development
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Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:46 am

Post by christian » Sun Nov 04, 2007 4:55 pm

If the PID is your own, there is no limitation on what you may do with it.

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