Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
If these open-source printers have inluenced commercial ones, it's worth
mentioning here that commercial printing technology has inluenced RepRap
and Fab@Home. However, the commercial 3D printing companies that held
patents that RepRap's design infringed upon never tried to stop the RepRap
project (at least as far as we know). Perhaps because the RepRap project did
not involve the sale or manufacturing of 3D printers directly—just the open
sharing of machine designs. Maybe established 3D printing companies real-
ized that the positive publicity generated by the RepRap project would raise
the visibility of the entire 3D printing industry. Or companies igured that if
students used RepRap printers in school, they would graduate, get jobs, and
eventually embrace high-end commercial printers at work.
What will RepRap's approach, that is, eschewing intellectual property rights
and control over machine production and design, do to traditional notions of
commerce? Adrian believes that as material goods become much easier to make
and more widely obtainable, “The new coin of the realm will be exclusivity.”
The easier it becomes to make copies of physical things, the more people will
strive to own things that nobody else has.
If exclusivity becomes the new competitive edge, the result will be an origi-
nality arms race between consumers and between companies. On the one
hand, design tools and 3D printing make it easier to create unique and custom
goods. Yet, on the other hand, ironically, these same tools make it easy for a
unique product to be copied and slightly altered.
In our conversation with Adrian, he pointed out, “Once a new idea comes
out, or a version of an old idea that used to be very expensive but now by
technical twist is made very cheap, the new idea loods the world thanks to
the communications technology we have now.” In other words, when everyone
can make nearly anything, intellectual property law becomes a crude tool to
control the spread of ideas.
In a way, as reverse engineering and copying objects become easier, intellec-
tual property laws become even more crucial to a business trying to maintain
a market niche. However, intellectual property rights enforcement—whether
by laws or DRM technology—isn't always effective. Adrian summed it up,
“Patent law has to labor mightily to have the tiniest inluence on economics.
When politicians use intellectual law to try to steer an economy, it's like trying
to steer a machine with levers made of jelly.”
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search