New ask Hacker News story: Dutch state fighting open-hardware movement

Dutch state fighting open-hardware movement
3 by hstarmans | 1 comments on Hacker News.
I created an open-hardware project and got part of my inspiration while working for the Dutch State (TNO). The core idea is that a laser bundle is moved by rotating a prism. The Dutch state got a patent for a plurality of laser bundles but not for a single laser bundle. For the printed circuit board application, it founded LDI Systems in 2015. This failed and they wasted multiple million tax dollars. I only spent 10K dollars on a working system and paid taxes. I thought they would leave it there. But TNO requested a loan from the Dutch government (NWO) to pump 250K euro into a new shell company AM systems BV for the 3D printing application. This allows them to circumvent tender law and spent the money at free will. Most likely they will redirect the money to an optical consultancy. This is crazy! How can a country that created Python be so against open hardware!? Why do nation states create shell companies to escape their own tender laws, they could simply change the law!

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