Sunday, March 24, 2013
Why 3D Printing Will Be The Next Big Copyright Fight
ReadWrite: It's finally happening. That moment we've been hearing about for years - the one where futuristic-sounding 3D printing becomes ubiquitous - is actually upon us. President Obama even mentioned 3D printing in his State of the Union address. As prices drop and the technology improves, consumers are awaiting this disruptive new era with bated breath.
So are intellectual property lawyers.
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6 comments:
So my big question is what was HBO made about, the actual copyright of the chair or the fact they were not making any money off the sales. I would guess that it is they were not making any money off of the chair, but moving on I know for many years this debate will chug forward and there will be wins on both sides. It will be very interesting how everything falls, when it finally settles IF it ever finally settles. SO not sure if it will ever really settle, because if 3d printers really become as popular as they seem they might then I am not sure what will happen. Only the future knows.
Basically my thinking when it comes to 3D printing is, there's always someone who takes the awesome resource and ruins it for everyone. Whether that person is HBO suing someone for fabrication of copyrighted material, or someone actually producing copyrighted material that is known to be copyrighted. I can think of a million ways the 3D printing can be useful in the theater universe; particularly in prop shops. However, with so many laws against copyright becoming more and more prevalent 3D printers will only be useful for things like model making. I find it sort of upsetting that people are so greedy that they absolutely HAVE to sue anyone that has any sort of similar idea. sometimes I think copyright can be a very beneficial law but people abuse it so often now that it turns the most innovative creations into these huge battles. 3D printing is awesome; hopefully copyright laws wont ruin its potential.
I really think this is going to follow the same path as the music industry. It will become much more reasonable very soon for 3-d printers to be sitting there right next to your home normal old 2-d printer. I already have a folder full of things I intend to print the second I get the chance. But in the music and video industry there is an endless string of lawsuits against sites offering the streaming, torrenting, and downloading, and if anything it has gotten much easier to do all of those things. Information is becoming easier and easier to transfer and this is something even harder to stop because the files in question are just stl files and how do you prove that they are a direct copy? As long as no one is selling the files such as the HBO Throne thing then there is no way to stop people because the more companies try and have these sites taken down, the more are gonna pop up. And even so if I learn to use the software I can just make these things myself, and that gets even simpler once 3-d scanners become cheap/ easy to use. If I can in the privacy of my own home put an object in my scanner and tell my printer to replicate it, how do you prosecute that?
This is quite an interesting issue. This issue is in no way as straightforward as say, illegally downloading a movie or some music. That is a direct copy of the good available for sale, and is quite clearly copyright infringement. On the other hand, if someone creates something based off a piece of intellectual property they do not own, but the thing they create has nothing like it in the market already, should there really be a case against the maker? It seems as though 3D printers will be an amazing technology, but if large corporations get involved with copyright claims, a large portion of the possible creativity will be stifled.
I agree how once the 3D printing becomes easily accessible, there are going to be a lot of problems with copyright since "the relationship between copyright and physical objects is not always straightforward." Although it sounds really good to me that the technology improved so much that even 3D printing will become affordable soon to every public, there will be a lot of disputes among people based on who owns the 3D printable object. I think as I am thinking it is really hard to think of criterion of what can be patented or not. I think people just need to be more respectful and negotiating with each other, so that they can set the standard as lenient and fair as they can be for both sides. I hope that this 3D printing becomes cheaper and usable soon, which sounds so useful and interesting for our theatrical area.
This is a hard topic to have strong answers to because at this point in time we don't know what the courts are going to deiced. I personally hope that the courts will not side with the copy right holders as they stand today, groups like HBO. I can see their side of the case, but I also think that the free exchange of ideas and "things" needs to be held be the public. If groups and people are able to copyright things and base objects or designs then pretty soon there won't be any new creations that aren't stomped on by someone else. Copy write is all about encouraging people to make creative things by ensuring that they will get credit for them.
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