[Arthalion]

I don't think this is legal anyway. Software companies can get away with this because intellectual propertly laws grant certain copyright priveledges to information distribution. Hard inventions, however, fall under patent law, not copyright...there's no IP involved here.

Legally, there's nothing stopping me from purchasing a Jeep from the local dealership, delivering it to a local machine shop, and having an exact copy made. It's even legal for me to sell it, so long as I make it clear to the buyer that it's a clone and not a real Jeep. If we're talking about an invention covered by a currently active patent, like electronics hardware, the rules about selling the clone change (can't do it) but there's still nothing stopping me from building a few copies for my own personal use.

I can sympathize with their predicament, but the license isn't legally enforceable. If they want to prevent people from copying it, they need to integrate some kind of electronics into it and place some encrypted software on board, which would cause it to fall under the DMCA...otherwise they're out of luck.

[Edsquire]

If we're talking about an invention covered by a currently active patent, like electronics hardware, the rules about selling the clone change (can't do it) but there's still nothing stopping me from building a few copies for my own personal use.

Not true.

35 U.S.C. § 271 (emphasis added):
(a) [W]hosoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention [in the U.S., or imports it], infringes the patent.