David, you bring an interesting idea. The relationship between Liberty Colony and IP. 
This is why I think the Liberty Colony is an idea worth exploring, because it takes theory/debate/speculation, and seeks to strip it down to the bare nuts and bolts of what a free society needs, and what challenges it is going to face as it establishes itself in a potentially hostile environment, politically, climactically etc.
Well, to be fair, Michael Reynolds has spent 30 years of his life figuring out, often by expensive trial and error, just how best to build these things. In one case, he built a 2 story - but the solar gain from the windows melted a typewriter. So getting things right is important. THIS IS NOT A NORMAL HOUSE. The properties being utilized are different, and need to be properly understood and integrated into what is essentially a human/earth interface device to function properly. This is not a box - it is a machine. It was not just thrown together with a level and some nails, it’s a major architectural innovation. I don’t see the problem in being asked to pay for the value of someone else’s innovation. I sure as hell would charge big bucks, and so, I suspect, would many of you.
He has also spent about 75% of the cash he has raised, and most of his time, lobbying legislatures and governmental flunkies to enhance the permit process to allow people to build these things. So not like the guy is out for a quick buck. He’s on a crusade.
If I put 30 years of my life into such a project, going through what he’s gone though, you can be damned sure I’d be charging a lot more than $5k for the plans. Making these things work is not something anyone can just figure out on the fly.
The last thing you would want to do is to go through a lengthy trial and error process in a foreign country, but of course up to you.
Additionally, this should be phrased “it costs the same as a wood/steel framed house to have one built” - but the idea here is that you can do a large amount of the job yourself, hands on. There is no foundation because they use dirt-packed tires as the thermal mass inits, which weigh - after packing with sledgehammers - about 400 pounds each, which are then stacked like bricks to form all structural/thermal mass walls. Here is how Reynold’s breaks down the costs:
BALLPARK COSTS ARE AS FOLLOWS…30% LABOR 30% MATERIALS 18% SYSTEMS 12% SUBCONTRACTORS 10% PROFIT. BASE THE ABOVE ON ABOUT $135 PER SF FOR THE PACKAGED EARTHSHIP AND $150 FOR THE MODULAR AND MORE FOR THE CUSTOM. TAKE OFF PROFIT AND LABOR IF YOU BUILD IT YOURSELF. YOU WILL FIND THESE COSTS TO BE SIMILAR TO CONVENTIONAL CONSTRUCTION
So if you figure $150/sf, and you take off labor and profit, that’s 150 * 0.6 = $90/sf
And in a developing country this cost is so small that it is almost negligible. People will easily work for 2-5$ per day and be happy to have the job.
Agreed. For the vast majority of the labor, you don’t even need skilled workers - just guys able to swing sledgehammers to pack the tires, and then to lift the beams, trusses and so forth. The earthship people sell a modular power package - integrated solar hot water heater, panels, invetrer for the panels, control logic, all that stuff, so that would be one expense you would need to incur in full - hell it would not cost that much to fly one of the earthship people down for a couple/few days to hook things up for you, especially if you had multiple earthships being built so they could knock 'em all out - and teach you how to do it properly for future. They hook up the solar panels/inverter first thing and run all the tools off of them, so that takes care of the power issue. I don’t know for sure but that seems to indicate the power module goes in early and the house gets built around it. Subcontractors would also be cheap in 3rd world, so that component would cost less than he is estimating, just need to find someone that knew what they were doing, but that should be doable, or if you have among the members someone who knows a moderate amount about carpentry and plumbing, you’d be pretty much set as I understand it. You want good carpentry skills so you get the front windows right - these, in conjunction with the thermal mass and the geotherms from the quasi-underground nature of the structure is what will keep it at 70 throughout the year. You want good plumbing skills because you are running greywater and potentially blackwater (thuogh I think a solar john makes a lot of sense for your situation, which would obviate the need for blackwater) through the living room, and you do NOT want leaks. That water is used to irrigate edibles, so definitely good to have it functioning properly.
If you look on the web site, you’ll see they offer seminars in building these things. If you do get serious about this, you or others in the group might want to attend one. You’d be rubbing shoulders with a buncha hippies no doubt, but hey, gotta be willing to sacrifice for liberty. 
And who knows, you might even convert one or two.