Maybe this Stallman essay will be food for thought: http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/1999062200505NWLF
In a nutshell, Open Hardware is not nearly as important as Free Software. The crux of the matter is that copying software is trivial; copying physical hardware is anything but. But it's vital that the hardware's specifications are free, so Free Software can be written for it, without costly and difficult reverse-engineering efforts.
