Thursday, November 17, 2011
NY Times Discovers The Coming Legal Battle Over 3D Printing
Techdirt: We've been discussing 3D printing for over a decade, including warning that some of the disrupted companies/industries are likely to go ballistic and talk about how they're being "robbed" by this form of competition. Hopefully, enough people realize this is crazy, but it seems doubtful.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The idea that the objects that are designed can be easily replicated by 3D printers is not a new concept and as the technology improves you will be able to get better and better replicas. If we can't prosecute offenders for downloading music and video we sure won't be able to prosecute people for replicating objects through 3D printing. If someone puts up on the web a 3D model of objects they might get prosecuted but if it happens the way that music and video is happening there is no chance of stopping it. I think that the quality of the replicas will limit the amount of piracy by showing that the quality of the object from the manufacturer will for a time out shine the 3D printing. I think that when the 3D printing gets to the quality of the manufacturers and every household has a 3D printer we will be able to do away with retail outlets and shipping of some pre-manufactured objects and buy the CAD models from the manufacturer in an Itunes fashion. It allows manufacturing to become digital and allows greater competition from smaller design firms and individuals. The 3D printer market will be a booming market if that happens. With the pace of the technology as it is this issue will come to the courts sooner rather than later.
I am fascinated by the fact that 3-D printing is a concept that is very much so being actualized in the now and present, so much so that the legalities of it are being openly debated. I fully support the idea of having technology to 3-dimentionally print renderings and artistic designs, but the argument of printing manufactured, copyrighted objects is a whole can of worms I do not know where to begin claiming a position on. I would only hope that there would be some legal consequence to such an action: because otherwise no artistic license/ territory can be claimed for one's own work and product.
Post a Comment