Licenses for Tech concept needs work

I was having some evil thoughts and I want to share them.

For me, the root concept of a license is that while you might be able to do a thing, doing it without the license has legal or societal consequences. So, how could we do this in the SE2 world? The framing of the survival scenario, is that you the player have arrived in the system from the deep past. Thus, you need to learn the tech before you can build it.

Imagine that the 'license' includes the workshop manual for the block it relates to. Not having this manual would mean that you could not maintain or repair the block. My model is the corporate, international trade in technology licenses (and the corporate and national espionage to get around the need to buy a license).

In rare cases, you might find a captains strongbox on a wrecked or captured ship, and find some or all of the ship licenses/workshop manuals in. You might need a black market trader to open the box and transfer the licenses to you, for a price.

So stealing a ship with unlicensed blocks is asking for them to fail. I.e. using tech without a license implies that you can be punished for doing so.

If your ship takes damage, you may not be able to repair a block to 100% functionality.

When you land at a station, perhaps the station's AI could check the ship for unlicensed tech and either issue fines or confiscate the unlicensed blocks.

Another choice could be for the station to refuse services, i.e. disallow access via connector, and disallow fast travel. So no auto refuel and no access from the ship to or from the trade station.

A later addition could then be to set up 'renegade' trade stations, which would access to the black market and would provide hydrogen in trade for goods. Markups to reflect ones standing with the faction owning the station. I.e. added mid to late game complexity (depending on how difficult it to get licenses legitimately.