Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Ettus Research News

[Marcus D. Leech]

On 02/05/2010 04:59 PM, Don Fanning wrote:
> Am I denying that he shouldn't be paid?  No. 
> He has done a great bit of work and much congratulations to him for
> taking his business to the "next level".
>
> I'm not going to get all "awestruck" about the guy.  No one is worthy
> of that.  He may be your friend, but this is just business.  Nothing
> personal.
>
> When someone touts a product that doesn't include all the pieces, then
> they should be given a chance to respond and make it right.
So, near as I can tell, the "missing piece" that you're all bothered
about is that the PCB design
  files were never released, and this, somehow, makes the product "not
include all the pieces".
  Last time I bought an LCD TV, for example, I didn't even get
printed-on-paper schematics, let
  alone electronic design files.  Matt could have chosen to not give
away *any* of the hardware
  design information in an e-useful format, and he'd *still* be a
towering member of the Open
  Source community.  There is no "code" that says that "if you give away
any of it, you have to
  give away all of it".

Not only is *all* the firmware, fpga designs, software (via gnu radio),
available openly, but so are
  other "manufacturing" files like the BOMs, and schematic-capture files. 

Matt, as the owner of this stuff in the intellectual sense, has chosen
to hold-back a rather-small
  piece of the pie--that's his choice, and he's been very public about
that choice from the very
  early days--and I've been around since the very beginning so I think
I'm speaking with at least
  some authority on the subject.  I have a USRP1 with a very low serial
number, and I was one
  of the BETA customers for the DBS_RX, and even in those days, the
policy was that the PCB
  files were held back.

Seems to me that the only people really affected by such a decision are
those who want to put
  *zero* effort into exact-cloning his work.   If the *real* reason is
that you want to "integrate pieces of
  the design into your own product", then *everything* you need is
already openly available.
  Implying otherwise is disingenuous in the extreme.

Currently, there's a "glitch" in that websites got shuffled and Matt
chose to take that opportunity
  to clean things up before putting all of that stuff back up.   I think
it really sucks that you're
  effectively accusing Matt of having a hidden agenda.  Perhaps, I might
suggest, Don, that maybe
  you're the one with the hidden agenda.

Some peoples children....