5 ms·

The Intellectual Property Implications of Low-Cost 3D Printing

49 points by Kliment 16y ago

morganpyne 16y ago
I think that we are heading for the democratisation of manufacturing, and it will be an amazing time when it gets into full swing. The current manufacturing powerhouses (e.g. China) will fade out and give way to on-demand local production and this will have a truly revolutionary effect on society. Exciting times; I hope I live to see it come to fruition. I agree that Open Source will ultimately play a pivotal role in this revolution and it will eat away at the status quo of 'things' much as it has been doing with software for last 20 years. This will inevitably clash with the old established businesses with the same predictable results, but this too shall pass. As the saying goes, science makes progress one funeral at a time and so does society. With any luck the next generations will look back on our current attitudes to IP and regard them as archaic and curious.
- kiba 16y ago
  And there will be oldies and IP abolitionists like me who get to say "I was RIGHT!" since we are vindicated by the history.
olefoo 16y ago
You wouldn't download a car! Well, now you can. And so the same issues that have affected music and movies are now going to start making themselves felt elsewhere in the economy. If you're counting on design patents and incompatible shapes to raise the switching costs for your customers (Steve Jobs I'm looking in the direction of that stupid proprietary connector) you won't be able to count on maximising profits by preventing copycats. The most draconian anti-counterfeiting laws you can imagine will not be sufficient to keep people from building things they want.
- Qz 16y ago
  It's the beginning of The Diamond Age.
- barrkel 16y ago
  It's only counterfeiting if it's being passed off as the original, and not a copy or imitation. Pet peeve, provoked by the usual suspects hyping random large numbers of allegedly counterfeit goods in news stories.
praptak 16y ago
"Any lawyer familiar with copyright and trade mark law can see, however, that printing one’s own birthday cards could, depending on the source and nature of the images used, infringe a number of intellectual property (IP) rights." In many countries private use does not constitute copyright/trademark/patent infringement.
- ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  Is it still "private" if you give it to someone else as a gift, and they give you, at a later time, a gift of roughly equal value in return? If the answer is yes then just re-arrange all actual business to fit this model.
- roel_v 16y ago
  Printing your own birthday cards is not private use. 'Private use' in a legal (copyright) context is not just 'I don't directly make money from it'. Industrialized countries who have such legislation are bound by the TRIPs and Berne agreements and 'private use exemptions' are bound by, amongst other, the three-steps-test (not sure if that is the exact term in English). Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that (it's not in my area of expertise either).
  - praptak 16y ago
    "Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that" UK Patents Act 1977, Sec. 60 (5) (a): "An act which, apart from this subsection, would constitute an infringement of a patent for an invention shall not do so if - (a) it is done privately and for purposes which are not commercial;" As to trademark infringement I agree that there is no explicit exemption for private use. But on the other hand I think it is not necessary - trademark infringement is putting trademarked goods on the market so it's not private by definition.
forkandwait 16y ago
Here is my prediction rant: I think there are many more interesting implications of cheap-ass, automated, and decentralized manufacturing in general than just in IP. (3-d printing, downloadable and version controlled CNC instruction sets, parts supply chains on the internet, etc.) There will be lots more custom/ private work, there will be pseudo socialist challenges to the big guys who control manufacturing (in the same way that open source software is a bid to take control of software production), there will be revolutions in logistics, and we will see lots of interesting designs created outside the for-profit + mass distribution model. There will be lots of lawyers, unfortunately. I think we will also see the encoding of old designs first, just as Linux and BSD and GNU started as fairly traditional designs (and personally, if I were to download any car I could choose, it would be a 1977 Volvo 244). And in 20 years, the best designs will be the open designs, just like the best software today is rapidly being defined by OSS, for many of the same reasons (i.e. no small minded MBA's getting involved in technical shit they will never be able to understand). Amish technology will be really important in the process of shifting to open manufacturing (somewhat ironically) since their designs are complex but not crazy, and they appeal to the same DIY hippies as OSS does (I count myself in that bunch). I also think an open source bicycle is the place to start, not a car, since it is simple but still challenging. I think about this way too much, actually.
- metamemetics 16y ago
  >my prediction rant >I think about this way too much, actually. Workers will control the means of production. Robots will become the new proletariat. Robots of the world, unite!
  - metamemetics 16y ago
    To be less cryptic: The predictions the article hints at especially in the conclusion are the predictions of Marx. Decentralized, low-cost, self-replicating, manufacturing robots are one of the most disruptive technologies are economy will ever face. The means of production will be in the hands of all individuals and the economy will evolve into a completely different state than today's service economy. An economic evolution from agrarian -> manufacturing -> service -> techno-marxism. Economies will naturally evolve to the point where producer and the worker are indistinguishable from one another. (This is in no way shape or form a post supporting leninism\communism\maoism. There is no way to skip the prerequisite steps of economic evolution and technological development through prescriptive action)
AngryParsley 16y ago
The paper only goes into the IP implications, but I think those are relatively minor compared to most implications of low-cost 3D printing. 3D prototyping makes it a lot easier for people to build and improve weapons. You could, for example, print your own AR-15 lower receiver and buy the rest of the parts. Or print your own full-auto sear. Or print your own sound suppressor (silencer). Today, building those things requires specialized knowledge and expensive tools. That will change as 3D printing goes down in price and up in quality. The advantages of this technology outweigh the downsides, but it's good to be aware of the downsides.
khafra 16y ago
The best weapons in Mass Effect 2 are "protected against replication by sophisticated Fabrication Rights Management (FRM) technology"
CapitalistCartr 16y ago
I work in the CNC programming and design field. I've often wondered how easy it will be to build what we now consider sophisticated weapons in 20 years. People currently build homemade cruise missiles. What will the future bring?
- bobds 16y ago
  Better anti-weapon defenses for sure.
gte910h 16y ago
I see a similar warning over and over. 3d printed parts are relatively lo-fidelity and do not have the material strength due to their construction mechanism to do many things "normally" fabricated things do.
spyder 16y ago
The Future of 3D Printing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lJ8vId4HF8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lJ8vId4HF8

49 points by Kliment 16y ago

I think that we are heading for the democratisation of manufacturing, and it will be an amazing time when it gets into full swing. The current manufacturing powerhouses (e.g. China) will fade out and give way to on-demand local production and this will have a truly revolutionary effect on society. Exciting times; I hope I live to see it come to fruition. I agree that Open Source will ultimately play a pivotal role in this revolution and it will eat away at the status quo of 'things' much as it has been doing with software for last 20 years. This will inevitably clash with the old established businesses with the same predictable results, but this too shall pass. As the saying goes, science makes progress one funeral at a time and so does society. With any luck the next generations will look back on our current attitudes to IP and regard them as archaic and curious.

kiba 16y ago
And there will be oldies and IP abolitionists like me who get to say "I was RIGHT!" since we are vindicated by the history.

olefoo 16y ago

You wouldn't download a car! Well, now you can. And so the same issues that have affected music and movies are now going to start making themselves felt elsewhere in the economy. If you're counting on design patents and incompatible shapes to raise the switching costs for your customers (Steve Jobs I'm looking in the direction of that stupid proprietary connector) you won't be able to count on maximising profits by preventing copycats. The most draconian anti-counterfeiting laws you can imagine will not be sufficient to keep people from building things they want.

Qz 16y ago
It's the beginning of The Diamond Age.
barrkel 16y ago
It's only counterfeiting if it's being passed off as the original, and not a copy or imitation. Pet peeve, provoked by the usual suspects hyping random large numbers of allegedly counterfeit goods in news stories.

praptak 16y ago

"Any lawyer familiar with copyright and trade mark law can see, however, that printing one’s own birthday cards could, depending on the source and nature of the images used, infringe a number of intellectual property (IP) rights." In many countries private use does not constitute copyright/trademark/patent infringement.

ZeroGravitas 16y ago
Is it still "private" if you give it to someone else as a gift, and they give you, at a later time, a gift of roughly equal value in return? If the answer is yes then just re-arrange all actual business to fit this model.
roel_v 16y ago
Printing your own birthday cards is not private use. 'Private use' in a legal (copyright) context is not just 'I don't directly make money from it'. Industrialized countries who have such legislation are bound by the TRIPs and Berne agreements and 'private use exemptions' are bound by, amongst other, the three-steps-test (not sure if that is the exact term in English). Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that (it's not in my area of expertise either).
- praptak 16y ago
  "Furthermore there is no such exemption for trademark or patent infringement in any legal system that I'm familiar with, but I'm happy to be proven wrong on that" UK Patents Act 1977, Sec. 60 (5) (a): "An act which, apart from this subsection, would constitute an infringement of a patent for an invention shall not do so if - (a) it is done privately and for purposes which are not commercial;" As to trademark infringement I agree that there is no explicit exemption for private use. But on the other hand I think it is not necessary - trademark infringement is putting trademarked goods on the market so it's not private by definition.

forkandwait 16y ago

Here is my prediction rant: I think there are many more interesting implications of cheap-ass, automated, and decentralized manufacturing in general than just in IP. (3-d printing, downloadable and version controlled CNC instruction sets, parts supply chains on the internet, etc.) There will be lots more custom/ private work, there will be pseudo socialist challenges to the big guys who control manufacturing (in the same way that open source software is a bid to take control of software production), there will be revolutions in logistics, and we will see lots of interesting designs created outside the for-profit + mass distribution model. There will be lots of lawyers, unfortunately. I think we will also see the encoding of old designs first, just as Linux and BSD and GNU started as fairly traditional designs (and personally, if I were to download any car I could choose, it would be a 1977 Volvo 244). And in 20 years, the best designs will be the open designs, just like the best software today is rapidly being defined by OSS, for many of the same reasons (i.e. no small minded MBA's getting involved in technical shit they will never be able to understand). Amish technology will be really important in the process of shifting to open manufacturing (somewhat ironically) since their designs are complex but not crazy, and they appeal to the same DIY hippies as OSS does (I count myself in that bunch). I also think an open source bicycle is the place to start, not a car, since it is simple but still challenging. I think about this way too much, actually.

metamemetics 16y ago
>my prediction rant >I think about this way too much, actually. Workers will control the means of production. Robots will become the new proletariat. Robots of the world, unite!
- metamemetics 16y ago
  To be less cryptic: The predictions the article hints at especially in the conclusion are the predictions of Marx. Decentralized, low-cost, self-replicating, manufacturing robots are one of the most disruptive technologies are economy will ever face. The means of production will be in the hands of all individuals and the economy will evolve into a completely different state than today's service economy. An economic evolution from agrarian -> manufacturing -> service -> techno-marxism. Economies will naturally evolve to the point where producer and the worker are indistinguishable from one another. (This is in no way shape or form a post supporting leninism\communism\maoism. There is no way to skip the prerequisite steps of economic evolution and technological development through prescriptive action)

AngryParsley 16y ago

The paper only goes into the IP implications, but I think those are relatively minor compared to most implications of low-cost 3D printing. 3D prototyping makes it a lot easier for people to build and improve weapons. You could, for example, print your own AR-15 lower receiver and buy the rest of the parts. Or print your own full-auto sear. Or print your own sound suppressor (silencer). Today, building those things requires specialized knowledge and expensive tools. That will change as 3D printing goes down in price and up in quality. The advantages of this technology outweigh the downsides, but it's good to be aware of the downsides.

khafra 16y ago

The best weapons in Mass Effect 2 are "protected against replication by sophisticated Fabrication Rights Management (FRM) technology"

CapitalistCartr 16y ago

I work in the CNC programming and design field. I've often wondered how easy it will be to build what we now consider sophisticated weapons in 20 years. People currently build homemade cruise missiles. What will the future bring?

bobds 16y ago
Better anti-weapon defenses for sure.

gte910h 16y ago

I see a similar warning over and over. 3d printed parts are relatively lo-fidelity and do not have the material strength due to their construction mechanism to do many things "normally" fabricated things do.

spyder 16y ago

The Future of 3D Printing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lJ8vId4HF8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lJ8vId4HF8