Apropos David Vekler’s piece on techno-utopian futures comes exciting news from the 3D printing industry.
The open-source Fab@Home project just released the full documentation, software, and designs for a do-it-yourself 3D printer kit… por gratis.
As Stephen Kinsella and others have mentioned in the past, one of the next major battlegrounds in the IP war will be in this nascent industry. And if the farcical allegations promoted by the IP-Big Media Complex are of any guide, it will only be a matter of time until 3D scanning/copying/printing at home becomes a highly regulated, highly policed activity.
Moonshine manufacturing anyone?
See also: RepRap Project and Fabjectory.
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Seriously cool. It’s happening a lot faster than I thought. My hope is that lessons learned from the ongoing death of copyright will influence business, social, and culturial attitudes about patent.
As a practical matter the affected industries haven’t the resources to bribe the government to do the policing job for them. Indeed, I doubt that it is even possible to do the job any more than it has been possible to stop peer-to-peer sharing of music tracks and movies.
“Settled” industries invariably try to leverage their economic and political clout to stifle technological innovation. It never works in the long run.
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