Public Knowledge has a research document looking at how intellectual property law might affect 3D printing, and how some industries might feel threatened enough to try and stop 3D printing -- kind of like some industries screwed around with Sony's mini-Discs, digital audio tape, and more recently with hi-def video.
...businesses (and industries) unwilling or unable to adapt may go to Congress to ask for increased IP protection for everyday items. Following the playbook of the recording and motion picture industries, they will also label 3D printers tools of piracy, and their users as thieves...
The document even has a cool title: “It Will Be Awesome If They Don't Screw It Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology.”
Download the document and/or get more info here.
Bit late on the comments...
The entertainment industry is having a melt-down because the marginal cost for pirates to produce a copy of their IP is much less than the cost of a 'genuine' copy of that IP, and it takes no specialized knowledge to produce that copy.
The marginal cost to produce a physical object on an RP system is much higher than the cost of a 'genuine' object, and it takes specialized knowledge to produce that copy.
Before RP could become a real threat, the RP industry would have to invent a 3D scanner that actually works, a 3D printer that costs only a few hundred dollars, and printing material that cost only a pennies a cubic inch. The last two might happen someday. The first one, though, I believe won't be possible until the C.S. types invent A.I.
Posted by: Rick Damiani | Nov 28, 2010 at 07:46 PM