Good Idea, Chap: On 3D Printing and 2D Thinking

So my microwave blew up the other day.

Although it wasn’t as dramatic as I’d like it to be (no flashy explosions, just a very faint BOOM), I was still not able to warm up my milk and had to have my cornflakes with cold milk instead- not a very good start of the day, I wouldn’t mind telling you!

So I did a bit of research yesterday and found out that it would cost me more to repair the darned machine than to buy a new one. I did find this a bit disheartening at the time as I was told that the microwave was not working properly because a fuse had blown up and damaged an internal part of the microwave.

That part, of course, had to be ordered from the manufacturer and replaced which would, ultimately, be incredibly costly, time- consuming and somewhat ultra inefficient.

The whole episode brought me back to my childhood when I used to replace the broken parts of my toys with ones that I had made out of playdo (don’t pretend, you all know what this is). Amazingly enough, it always worked.

That, of course, wouldn’t have worked with the microwave- sticking some playdo onto a micro- chip would only work in a Terminator movie.

I then remembered listening to a lecture on TED some time ago which talked about the concept of 3D printing and read up on the matter.

The more I read, the more my jaw dropped. Having first come up in 1970s, 3D printing had been progressively developing throughout the ages and had now reached an unbelievable level of detail of sophistication. Also, it would seem that there were machines out there which were affordable to the public and quite user friendly (such as the RepRap ‘Mendel’).

Let us summarise what is meant by 3D printing:

‘Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model. 3D printing is achieved using additive processes, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material.  3D printing is considered distinct from traditional machining techniques (subtractive processes) which mostly rely on the removal of material by methods such as cutting and drilling.’

The above over- simplified explanation extracted from Wikipedia lead me to believe that I could have easily produced my own internal microwave bit had I had one of those machines.

It also made me proud to be human, albeit for about ten minutes and until I read a couple of other articles explaining how 3D printing would be meeting a lot of legal challenges along the way.

Even though I do not, by any means, intend to delve into a prolonged discussion, it is suffice to say that many a lawyers are already looking at the real possibility of 3D printing infringing IP rights somewhere along the way.

In its present state, 3D printing is not in danger as people mainly used it for private and personal rather than commercial use. One of the requirements for establishing infringement of a copyright, trade mark or patent is to prove that that alleged infringer has used the product in the course of trade or for commercial purposes. Furthermore, when it comes to design protection and unregistered design protection, the parts produced by 3D printing will most probably be covered by the ‘must- fit’ exception which dictates that items which are solely designed in a way which would fit other parts will not be protected.

The 3D printers currently operate with what’s called a WRL or DAS files which contain the information on various products and their dimensions; think of it as mp3, mpg, etc. In time, those will become largely available to the general public at a certain price.

However, it will not be long until DAS/ WRL sharing hits the internet through torrents and various websites. And we all know what that will mean: a further sea of litigation for unauthorised used of copyright information.

Yet, once again, the main argument will remain: those will be used by private individuals, for personal and NON- COMMERCIAL purposes.

And so the endless saga of pointless legal battles will continue and our limited 2D thinking will try to limit 3D printing.

For, with humanity these days, it has never been about ‘US’; it’s always been about ‘ME’.

Ah well…

To Hell With It!