Proposed e-NABLE Policy

The Strategic Planning Committee would like to collectively propose a new policy for consideration. Please review the following draft and share your comments below. The voting process will begin after at least one week of discussion.

e-NABLE is a volunteer philanthropic effort. We give devices away for free. Our open-source license does not prevent people from charging for devices, but any such commercial activity is done outside of e-NABLE.

Our feeling is that, as soon as money is introduced into the equation, things get complicated. Liability increases, and we come under additional scrutiny from regulatory bodies and government agencies.

If you need money to support the work you're doing, e-NABLE has several funding mechanisms available to help. Email [email protected] to get that process started.

While, as stated above, the open-source licenses of our designs do not prevent people from using them commercially, a problem arises whenever e-NABLE is implicated in a financial transaction involving money for fabrication or delivery of a prosthetic device or related services.

We urge volunteers to avoid such situations and to include this statement in any case:  

"e-NABLE is a volunteer philanthropic effort. We give devices away for free. Our open-source license does not prevent people from charging for devices, but any such commercial activity is done outside of e-NABLE."