I think it probably was because they couldn't guarantee compatibility of certain applications, and didn't want to provide end-user support (too much costs/hassle). So they tried to sell it as a compatibility wrapper for developers. That way they only needed to provide support to the developer, not all users and sell the software for each application that runs correctly.
So I don't think it is a rights issue. The software effectively is just a Dalvik virtual machine for Maemo. That is all open source tech, and is available on all Android devices (even the non-google ones). Ubuntu also once had a tech demo with Android widgets, and if you run Android x86 in a virtual machine, you have someting a bit similar.