VIA's OpenBook initiative fails at actually being open

In addition to offering a list of recommended components and basic specifications, VIA is also providing CAD files for the physical enclosure of its reference design. VIA says that the CAD files will be distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC-AS) license so that manufacturers will be able to reduce their development costs by simply customizing the default design. Despite VIA's claim that the files will be available under an open license, however, we discovered that the terms of use are in fact quite restrictive and appear to be fundamentally incompatible with the CC-AS license. We suspect that this blunder is just an ignorant mistake and remain hopeful that it will eventually be fixed.