[LINK] 3D fabbers: don't let Intellectual property stifle an innovative future

[Kim Holburn]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/3d-fabbers-dont-let-the-dmca-stifle-an-innovative-future.ars

> What if I could simply download a three-dimensional design file for the part I needed from the Internet and then print it immediately on my household 3D printer? Thirty minutes later my dishwasher could be back in business with a good-as-new plastic replacement part, though I could potentially be on the hook for a huge damage award. That's because, as the physical world gets digitized, it will face all the same intellectual property issues that have so far affected digital content like music and movies.
> 
> As 3D scanners and 3D printers plunge in cost, designers and manufacturers are going to get worried. Once they get worried, they go  either to courts or to Congress. When this happened in the 1990s with digital media, the result was the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and those on the cutting edge of home three-dimensional fabrication want to make sure that they're ready this time when a similar full-court press tries to convince Congress to increase intellectual property protection in the US.
> 
> "Just as with the printing press, the copy machine, and the personal computer before it, some people will see 3D printing as a disruptive threat," says a new report 

> http://www.publicknowledge.org/files/docs/3DPrintingPaperPublicKnowledge.pdf 

> out today from the group Public Knowledge. "Similarly, just as with the printing press, the copy machine, and the personal computer, some people will see 3D printing is a groundbreaking tool to spread creativity and knowledge. It is critical that those who fear not stop those who are inspired."


-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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