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3D printing will have a "Napster" moment where some technology comes along and raises awareness to the mainstream level, and suddenly all the big IP holders wil

3D printing will have a "Napster" moment where some technology comes along and raises awareness to the mainstream level, and suddenly all the big IP holders will be up in arms and come after that technology. But by then it will be too late, and the true disruption will happen and change everything about manufacturing small goods at home.

pen2l 11y ago
I'm not sure if it'll have a Napster moment, or a moment quite like Napster. Napster was about having specific songs that other people made. Most of the makers in the 3d printing scene are not exactly printing from cad files stolen from manufacturers, they're building the models themselves with Autodesk software and Solidworks and Blender and so on. So there isn't going to be any day in which a manufacturer sues little folks to get money like companies were and still are able to do, because the manufacturer didn't create it, or have any part in creating it.
- bryondowd 11y ago
  I think he was talking about objects that have value because of their name/brand. Someone could probably print little Jedi action figures far cheaper than they cost in the store, because in the store you're paying for the IP, not just the plastic or the design work. Even if I'm designing my ripoff action figure myself, I'm modeling it after one I see in the store.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  > Most of the makers in the 3d printing scene are not exactly printing from cad files stolen from manufacturers, they're building the models themselves with Autodesk software and Solidworks and Blender and so on. So there isn't going to be any day in which a manufacturer sues little folks to get money like companies were and still are able to do, because the manufacturer didn't create it, or have any part in creating it. New sensors coming down the pipeline will allow your smartphone camera to image objects down to micron resolutions from ~1 meter away. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2906232/camera-chip-could-turn-phones-into-3d-scanners.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2906232/camera-chip-could-tur...
  - pen2l 11y ago
    Okay... so what would you scan and make? Consider everyday things around you: smartphones, laptops, etc. None of these can be 3dprinted. Things you can 3d print are... smartphone cover, smartphone stand... things you can afford to be plastic in its entirety. I think you guys are overestimating what 3dprinters are capable of. There's a lot of tinkering required to create anything of even moderate complication. And it's almost always cheaper to just buy it if it's available at the store, because the printer costs and the consumables (pla, abs or whatever filament) costs, and time costs.
    - nradov 11y ago
      You can't even 3D print a good smartphone cover. The one I use was injection molded to very tight tolerances and involves multiple different kinds of plastic joined together. Let's see a 3D printer do that.
      - toomuchtodo 11y ago
        Several 3D printers exist that can change materials mid-print. Resolution continues to increase every year.
- ghaff 11y ago
  I'm not convinced either about 3D printing having a Napster moment. But Napster does provide another good example of how scale totally changes things. The music industry didn't really have a serious problem with personal mixtapes or copying a friend's album. (Not saying they necessarily liked it but it wasn't a public issue.) Napster, on the other hand, that let you trade songs with 100,000 of your closest friends...
  - wlesieutre 11y ago
    > The music industry didn't really have a serious problem with personal mixtapes or copying a friend's album. I don't know about the RIAA and mixtapes, but the MPAA tried to get VCRs banned. As Jack Valenti (MPAA) explained to a congressional panel, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." Just wait until Disney finds out that you can make Mickey Mouse shaped pieces of plastic on an Ultimaker.
    - ghaff 11y ago
      Yeah, I'm aware of the Sony case. And there was also often copy protection on commercial VHS tapes. AFAIK, nothing similar happened with music pre-P2P sharing although RIAA never actually condoned it. I expect part of the reason is that the genie was already so far out of the bottle with cassette tape (and even reel-to-reel) that even they probably felt that it was pointless at that point to fight. However, a number of countries did impose a fee on blank media: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy
  - nitrogen 11y ago
    The music industry didn't really have a serious problem with personal mixtapes or copying a friend's album. Au contraire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music

pen2l 11y ago

I'm not sure if it'll have a Napster moment, or a moment quite like Napster. Napster was about having specific songs that other people made. Most of the makers in the 3d printing scene are not exactly printing from cad files stolen from manufacturers, they're building the models themselves with Autodesk software and Solidworks and Blender and so on. So there isn't going to be any day in which a manufacturer sues little folks to get money like companies were and still are able to do, because the manufacturer didn't create it, or have any part in creating it.

bryondowd 11y ago
I think he was talking about objects that have value because of their name/brand. Someone could probably print little Jedi action figures far cheaper than they cost in the store, because in the store you're paying for the IP, not just the plastic or the design work. Even if I'm designing my ripoff action figure myself, I'm modeling it after one I see in the store.
toomuchtodo 11y ago
> Most of the makers in the 3d printing scene are not exactly printing from cad files stolen from manufacturers, they're building the models themselves with Autodesk software and Solidworks and Blender and so on. So there isn't going to be any day in which a manufacturer sues little folks to get money like companies were and still are able to do, because the manufacturer didn't create it, or have any part in creating it. New sensors coming down the pipeline will allow your smartphone camera to image objects down to micron resolutions from ~1 meter away. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2906232/camera-chip-could-turn-phones-into-3d-scanners.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2906232/camera-chip-could-tur...
- pen2l 11y ago
  Okay... so what would you scan and make? Consider everyday things around you: smartphones, laptops, etc. None of these can be 3dprinted. Things you can 3d print are... smartphone cover, smartphone stand... things you can afford to be plastic in its entirety. I think you guys are overestimating what 3dprinters are capable of. There's a lot of tinkering required to create anything of even moderate complication. And it's almost always cheaper to just buy it if it's available at the store, because the printer costs and the consumables (pla, abs or whatever filament) costs, and time costs.
  - nradov 11y ago
    You can't even 3D print a good smartphone cover. The one I use was injection molded to very tight tolerances and involves multiple different kinds of plastic joined together. Let's see a 3D printer do that.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      Several 3D printers exist that can change materials mid-print. Resolution continues to increase every year.
ghaff 11y ago
I'm not convinced either about 3D printing having a Napster moment. But Napster does provide another good example of how scale totally changes things. The music industry didn't really have a serious problem with personal mixtapes or copying a friend's album. (Not saying they necessarily liked it but it wasn't a public issue.) Napster, on the other hand, that let you trade songs with 100,000 of your closest friends...
- wlesieutre 11y ago
  > The music industry didn't really have a serious problem with personal mixtapes or copying a friend's album. I don't know about the RIAA and mixtapes, but the MPAA tried to get VCRs banned. As Jack Valenti (MPAA) explained to a congressional panel, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." Just wait until Disney finds out that you can make Mickey Mouse shaped pieces of plastic on an Ultimaker.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    Yeah, I'm aware of the Sony case. And there was also often copy protection on commercial VHS tapes. AFAIK, nothing similar happened with music pre-P2P sharing although RIAA never actually condoned it. I expect part of the reason is that the genie was already so far out of the bottle with cassette tape (and even reel-to-reel) that even they probably felt that it was pointless at that point to fight. However, a number of countries did impose a fee on blank media: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy
- nitrogen 11y ago
  The music industry didn't really have a serious problem with personal mixtapes or copying a friend's album. Au contraire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music