But their licensing doesn't care about commercial interests or lack of there of.
It only reserves right to charge you if you ship a product. And by product they most obviously mean a device and by ship they obviously mean sell (or gift, or possibly rent) to some customers.
All of this sounds like a thunderstorm in a glass of water by people who read too many software licenses.
It's because people read more than one sentence and the very next one is:
"Failure to maintain active Thread Group membership while shipping Thread technology may result in legal action, including but not limited to licensing fees."
Which specifically mentions legal action in reaction to shipping only.
"Membership in Thread Group is necessary to ..." is just a statement of their wishes.
It's like "Sleeping is necessary for good health". It doesn't mean we'll sue you, if you don't sleep.
It only reserves right to charge you if you ship a product. And by product they most obviously mean a device and by ship they obviously mean sell (or gift, or possibly rent) to some customers.
All of this sounds like a thunderstorm in a glass of water by people who read too many software licenses.