[fsf-community-team] Free Software, What about Free Hardware?

[Franz Christopher]

Hello all, 

I don't know if I am over-stepping my membership in this list by posting something out of the blue, however, I have heard a great deal about Free Software, but I have yet to hear about Free Hardware. Is there such a thing?

Thinking about it makes me think that hardware manufacturers would stand to benefit from Free Hardware, imagine, the hardware manufacturer makes the device and the firmware is free to be run for any purpose, free to be studied and modified, free to be improved upon and free to be redistributed.

For instance, imagine a Portable Media Player (it can even be called an P-MPFree, jk) that comes with the freedom to be modified to best suit my needs.

This is something I would purchase in a heartbeat

Is this something that might happen?
Where can I find more information regarding this topic?
Does this sort of thing infringe upon the GNU/GPL in any way?
I am no hardware expert, is this sort of thing feasible?

Best Regards
Franz / LegionZero

War cannot be avoided until the physical cause
for its recurrence is removed and this, in the last analysis,
is the vast extent of the planet on which we live. ~ Nikola Tesla