Creative Commons, Open Source Stance and Intellectual Property
Open source hardware is a core part of the 3D printing community, especially when considering the Rep Rap movement that kickstarted affordable desktop 3D printing. We fully support the open source movement and have a unique stance on intellectual property.
All companies need intellectual property to survive, including open source companies. Brand integrity cannot be maintained without the likes of enforceable copyrights and trademarks. Similarly, certain products benefit from patent protection due to their innovative nature and the associated cost in time and resources to bring that innovation to life.
At Slice we have chosen to fully open source most products, and to use a combination of non-commercial Creative Commons licensing, free file sharing and patent protection for others. A breakdown of how this works is detailed below:
- The majority of our products are sold under the Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-SA open source license. You can find the drawings, CAD files and other resources on the related product page or the Documentation page.
- Certain products are protected by patents. Such products are sold under the Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY-NC (non-commercial) license. This means that the product can be used however you, the user, sees fit, including remixed, adapted or improved upon; as long as the resulting products aren't sold by a commercial enterprise (including sole proprietors) that profits from sales of remixed versions of Slice's patented products. As with the fully open source products you can find the drawings, CAD files and other resources on the related product page or the Documentation page. You can find a list of our granted patents here.
We hope that you will support us in our endeavor to bring more innovation to 3D printing. Every purchase you make allows us to keep hiring bright engineers that pour their heart and soul into bringing new ideas to life.