Someday soon, if you haven’t already, you will hear someone say…
“3D Printing is Stealing!”
If you haven’t heard about 3D printing, you should go check it out. This futuristic technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we purchase goods. Need a coathanger? Or a new waterbottle? Just print it out. If it’s a little larger, like a file cabinet, print it out piece by piece and assemble it yourself. Instead of going to the store for these things, you will go to your computer, pick a design from the web, and voila! - Out will come a complete physical product ready for use or assembly.
With 3D printing, a revolution in manufacturing is around the corner. Forget going to the store when you need a small gadget, toy, or tool - you can simply print one yourself. You would simply pay for the raw materials (plastic), and so “printing” things out will cost you pennies on the dollar.
But what happens when more and more companies claim that “3D Printing is Stealing”? I am worried about this newest natural progression of technology: Create technology, some industry freaks out, new laws ban new technology. From VCR, to Television, to MP3s, the pattern is the same.
From a legal perspective, making personal copies of physical things is currently legal. For example, imagine if I see a coffee mug I really like. I can go buy clay and mold it to create a mug, then fire and glaze it in a kiln, and I will have my own copy of that mug. This would be completely legal. Historically, having a new tool to manufacture or create these copies has also been legal. (e.g. Using a potters’ wheel to create a copy would also be legal.)
My concern is that these amazing devices may becomeillegalprohibited before they even become mainstream and useful. You see, with any 3D printer, there is the possibility to infringe on someone’s copyright. It goes even further than a regular copy machine (with that outdated technology… paper), where people are concerned about someone copying words. In this case, whole items will be available for print, and some people are already freaking out. These are the first people who will claim that 3D printing is stealing.
This movement will have a huge impact on production workforces around the world. There will be many companies who will fight this tooth and nail because they will believe that their livelihoods are at stake, and in some cases, they may be.
We need to protect 3D printing. We cannot let it go the way of Napster, Kazaa and MegaUpload. This is not the same old IP fight. The world has started opening up its ears to copyright, and governments needs to listen. We cannot allow legislation which removes our legal right to make things ourselves.
Unfortunately, the people behind our everyday name brand products and entertainment will fight this with claims of it being illegal. “It is the same as outright theft, same a shoplifting”, they will say. But we know the difference. Making a copy is not stealing.
Thanks for reading!
-Dave
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“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”
WARNING – IF YOU HAVE TOP SECRET SECURITY CLEARANCE.. HAVE A FRIEND/SPOUSE/COWORKER READ THIS FIRST TO BE SURE READING THIS ARTICLE WON’T COST YOU YOUR CLEARANCE!
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An acquaintance of mine is employed by a company which works closely with the US Government in our anti-terrorist efforts around the world. For the sake of this article we will call this person Jamie. I was speaking with Jamie just hours before a flight to a foreign country for work.
As preparation for this flight halfway around the world, Jamie was trying to copy a DVD to a laptop for entertainment during the long flight. With my interest in this topic, I didn’t even hesitate to ask: “Why don’t you simply download the movie? It’s going to be much easier“.
It turns out Jamie doesn’t like to download things online. For research and interest, I asked a question I ask almost everybody: What is your reason for not wanting to download media online for free?”
Jamie actually understood the major problems with copyright, but, due to the job, Jamie did not want to take any risks. A further explanation followed:
With the job being related directly to anti-terrorism, Jamie obviously needs top-secret clearance. Jamie explained that on a regularly scheduled basis, people with this clearance will get a polygraph (lie-detector) test in order to keep this clearance. Well, apparently, amongst the questions is a question along the lines of:
Have you download anything illegally? Or… Have you download copyrighted material?
Apparently answering this incorrectly (incorrectly meaning yes) does not immediately cost you your clearance, but can put a black mark on your record. Enough black marks and the assumption would be that you would drop a level of clearance, or lose it entirely.
I asked: “OK, but you are copying your DVD to your computer?”
I learned that Jamie’s understanding of copyright law was that it was legal to make a personal copy of your own purchased DVD to your own computer to watch later.
I proceeded to explain that was basically half right. Jamie was allowed to make a copy, but ONLY if the DVD was unencrypted. Well it’s a little more complicated than that; so let me explain further.
You see, anyone is allowed to make a copy of any software or DVD they own, provided it is never used unless the original is destroyed or damaged. This would mean you can’t legally watch it unless you destroy the original. But, nonetheless; it is true, that you are allowed to make a (single) backup copy of a DVD.
But there is an additional caveat to that: Encryption. With the latest Copyright laws, the DMCA makes bypassing (or decrypting) encryption illegal. That means if a DVD is encrypted, it has now become ILLEGAL for you to make that same backup copy of a DVD that you legally purchased. Too bad if you destroy it.
Today, every DVD is created with encryption, so even though it is fully legal to make the copy, it is ILLEGAL to decrypt the DVD to make the copy. So in essence, it is illegal to make the copy.
The minute I was finished explaining these things I realized my error: In educating Jamie about the legal aspects of copyright, I may have caused a “black mark” on the next polygraph.
I am so sorry.
This raises a few of questions:
-Anybody who knows how computers really work has shared files. That’s how it goes. Thirteen year olds are not considering that they may need top secret clearance later. If we are not giving clearance to these internet experts, it seems to me we are keeping out the smartest of the bunch. Is that how the government wants to catch terrorists? With second rate IT employees?
-While today most infringement is civil and not criminal, the fact remains that basically everybody technically breaks copyright laws on a daily basis. To understand copyright in depth is to know how little anybody can do without infringing on someone’s copyright. As copyright gets more and more complex (a.k.a. draconian), more and more activities are becoming criminalized. If someone wants to get clearance, join the FBI, work for the government, etc. what should they do? Should they remain willfully ignorant of copyright laws? If you don’t know you are doing anything wrong, you can obviously still get clearance. That leads down a slippery slope: what other portions of the law would someone remain willfully ignorant about, simply to gain access to our government?
-While this is a post for another day, I will make one more point. This situation where encryption gets abused is not limited to software and CD/DVDs. Car manufacturers and companies that make voting machines also abuse these circumvention laws to make many things illegal. Some include restrictions on finding legal car parts that are not your manufacturers’ own brand, or even doing your own car repairs. Others include testing voting machines for accuracy, and even prohibiting the testing of ATM’s machinesforbugs. I call this abuse “encryption wrapping” because it wraps legal activities in a blanket of illegality.
Is this what we want? A generation of employees who are ignorant of how the internet and/or the law works?
What do you think is more dangerous? A thirteen-year-old sharing a “50 Cent” song? Or preventing that same teenager from becoming a professional who actually helps the government fight terrorism?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments,
Thanks for reading!
-Dave
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“No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity.”
There are versions of a bill going around the house and the Senate right now. These bills are called SOPA and PIPA (respectively). If you haven’t heard about these bills, I want to give you a brief overview, and then explain what the consequences will be.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA,) and PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property, a.k.a. PIPA), are bills designed mainly with the interests of the movie and music industries in mind. The belief is that by stopping online piracy, somehow, sales will be increased to these industries. While each of the bills vary to some degree, they center around the concept of “removing” content that is deemed infringing (“illegal” copies of music and movies, art, photos, articles, etc…). This is entirely in hopes of stopping piracy.
This supposed threat allows anyone, anywhere, copyright holder or not, to shut down whole websites upon an accusation (NOT conviction) of guilt. This is done by forcing ISPs and search engines to block sites, as well as forcing any payment processor or online advertising network to cut the funding to these sites. If these ISPs, search engines, payment processors or ad networks refuse to cut ties, they are immediately liable themselves. It’s easy to understand why these companies would over block legitimate content upon a notice, simply to keep themselves from being liable to a lawsuit.
If these bills become law, the end result would not be less piracy, but, instead, a complete divide between the average internet user and the “nerds” as Congress likes to label them us. (I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a bit of a nerd.) We would have in effect, two internets: one internet for us nerds who know what DNS resolution, TCP/IP and proxy settings do, and another for the average internet user. To believe we would all have access to the same internet is a farce.
This would be the Prohibition Internet.
The internet for the average user will be very limited. Forget Youtube as it exists (uploading over 24 hours of video every minute); in fact, forget most user generated websites; in FACT, forget other sites such as Craigslist, or even Wikipedia. One or two comments could cause whole blogs to go down because hyperlinks are too easy to share. Large companies will be able to afford the legal costs of running an online business; any smaller websites or news organizations will not be able to keep themselves afloat. The mega corporations want to control what you put on the internet. In fact, they really want to turn the internet into the medium in which they have always made their money: television.
Then there is the internet for us geeks. We know how the internet works. We know how the internet can be used to route around itself and thus bypass any restrictions. This internet will be like a speakeasy – a bar that illegally sold alcohol during Prohibition. This internet will be a little more difficult to navigate, and less secure, since, in this internet, operating anonymously is essential. We would still have access to all the movies, music and sporting streams as we ever did; it will simply be much more fragmented than the internet has ever been before.
This underground internet will not be shared with the public, but by the nerds and their friends, who fear to be persecuted. Imagine Fahrenheit 451 in today’s digital world: people risking their lives to protect and save articles, comments, eBooks, while the government raids homes to seize computers, destroys hard drives, and seeks to throw those in jail for the heinous crime of sharing their experiences. Online privacy would be virtually destroyed. After all, how can they know if you are not sharing illegal files if they don’t know what you are sharing?
These bills are a real threat. For more information, please check out Techdirt.com articles on SOPA here. There is also an absolutely fantastic and funny cartoon strip which portrays the sad realities of these bills. Please check it out at http://www.getyourcensoron.com/
To help make a difference, please call or write your representatives in Congress and the Senate, and tell them why this is wrong. The folks at http://americancensorship.org/ have done a great job showing you how to do this and giving talking points if you do want to call your representatives. Also, please share this information with your friends and coworkers, and even your family. The only way we can combat this is to let everybody know what is happening. Thousands have already spoken out. Will you help join the fight? Only with enough voices will Congress realize they can’t tinker with the internet.
This really is a call to action. If you fail to act, and these laws come to pass, one day soon, when someone asks ask you if you knew and if you did anything, what will you say? Will you say you stood idly by and watched the internet die? Or will you say that you fought against this wrong?
Thanks for reading!
-Dave
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Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
As this is my first post ever, I am rather excited to start sharing my thoughts with you. I think a blog is the most appropriate medium for me to express myself. I am not smart enough to contain my thoughts to use Twitter effectively, as much as I may try (Please feel free to follow me @USAInnovation).
Here we will investigate such topics as innovation, invention, and what the difference is between them. We will discuss laws and politicians, and how things in our government are not as they were intended to be. We will discuss technology, and how politics has a huge influence.
Mainly, we will discuss the future, both good and bad. On one side we have groups working to do great things for our future. At the same time, there are other groups of people, and even governments, who are working very hard to fight this progress.
Our freedoms are a very important topic we will discuss, as daily they are being ripped to shreds. The first, fourth, and other amendments are being eroded piece by piece. Our founding fathers worried very much about our rights and freedoms as citizens, and spent much time debating how to ensure these freedoms for us. It is disheartening to watch these freedoms slowly being taken from us.
My main influences in writing this blog are Mike Masnick at Techdirt, for whom I have a huge respect, as well as some other blogs including TorrentFreak and ZeroPaid. Other influences include Penn and Teller, with their amazing series Bullshit!, and Google, the Mega-company that pledges to “do no evil”. Last, but maybe most important is Thomas Jefferson, my favorite founding father. The more I learn about himand his quotes, the more he embodies everything I would want to be; a man much more interested in the freedoms and the rights of citizens, and personally ensuring progress moves as efficiently as possible.
I hope you find these writings enjoyable and interesting. Please stop back soon; I plan to announce my book about downloading music and Intellectual Property very soon.
Thanks for reading!
-Dave
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All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
