> Last I checked, patents only prevent you from selling infringing items, not making them for your own use. INAL, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. If that

> Last I checked, patents only prevent you from selling infringing items, not making them for your own use. INAL, but I'm pretty sure that's not true. If that were the case MP3 patents would not have been such a big problem for OSS software. Similar things apply(/applied) to open source hardware designs for 3D printing technology. I tried to find out many times how far patents prevent non-profit usage, but also never arrived at a clear conclusion.