Since the advent of digital media and file-sharing on the internet there have been concerns over digital piracy. However there’s a new development on the horizon which is going to affect a lot more than just the entertainment industry. Soon it may be possible to “download” just about anything.

3D printing is the new kid on the block, and it gives users the ability to recreate almost any object with remarkable accuracy if the correct blueprint is used. The process is similar to printing on paper, except as the name would suggest, it does it in 3D by printing successive layers on top of one another. The concept is not at all new, and 3D printers have been in use in the industrial sector since the 1980’s, but now any consumer with enough money can buy one. When I say enough money, I mean about $2 000, which when you consider what you’re getting is not a lot at all. But it doesn’t stop there.

Online file-sharing giant, The Pirate Bay recently launched a new category, “Physibles”, where users can upload and share blueprints which can be used in 3D printers. When used at a utilitarian level it poses no threat to anyone; maybe some fun little sculptures or toys, but when used to create non-utilitarian objects it changes everything.

With this new technology it could be possible for consumers to recreate literally anything, from designer shades and sneakers to spare car parts and luxury items, and when that happens, because it certainly will, copyright infringement becomes a serious concern.

“There’s no question that things like movies and music are core, copyrightable works,” Rick Sanders of Aaron Sanders Law in Nashville told The Daily, “but 3-D printing presents a special problem.” That problem is that U.S. copyright law applies to “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works … insofar as their form but not their mechanical or utilitarian aspects are concerned.”

Non-utilitarian objects, however, “are certainly protected by copyright,” Florida State University assistant law professor Jake Lindon told The Daily. A simple hammer or nail might not fall under the auspices of copyright, “but a belt or a lamp with any kind of design element would be protected.”

This is very similar to our own copyright laws, and it makes it very tricky to regulate this new industry. It also means that essentially all goods will become intellectual goods and similarly property would become intellectual property.

When the market is set to become a free-for-all, companies will have to start relying on their intellectual property to continue generating business. Furthermore, the companies that are producing these 3D printers will not be held responsible for peoples choices to pirate goods.

This precedent goes back to the days of the Sony Betamax case, when it was found that the player had significant, non-infringing use, and was therefore allowed under copyright law: Just because someone can use a device to infringe copyright doesn’t mean the device is automatically verboten.

The scene is set for quite a showdown, and you can be sure that this won’t be the last time 3D printing makes headlines. The question is will it be to showcase fascinating new blueprints coming from independent designers or to reprimand shameless “pirates”.

[Source: The Daily, Wikipedia]