tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post7092007873616892704..comments2024-03-28T16:45:51.051+00:00Comments on The IPKat: Is 3D printing good or bad for counterfeiting?Verónica RodrÃguez Arguijohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05763207846940036921noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-12145257892159544602015-06-15T09:35:33.073+01:002015-06-15T09:35:33.073+01:00Dear Neil,
I have read your thoughts with great i...Dear Neil,<br /><br />I have read your thoughts with great interest and concur that counterfeiters shall not necessarily use 3D printers to execute/upscale their illegal activities.<br /><br />In order to predict the consequences of the 3D print revolution, I find it often helpful to compare it with the inkjet/laser printer revolution that took place during the past decades. <br /><br />Household printers and copiers at home (or their availability in copyshops) have unmistakenly had some influence on IP though have not been the greatest game changer. It has been the internet which made it easier to distribute digital files of copyrighted work (books, music, films, ...) which has caused the greatest disruption for copyright holders.<br /><br />I suspect a similar process shall take place on the 3D printing level. Not the actual printing of objects which might be an infringement of copyright, design rights, trademarks or patents shall cause disturbance, but the possibility to easily distribute digital files of such objects over the internet. <br /><br />However, price and convenience are factors that shall influence this evolution as well. In countries where afordable online legal music services have popped up, illegal downloads have gone down. If it is easier and cheaper to print a handbag at home, than buying it online or in a shop, consumers will do so. However, if the price difference is not substantail enough, consumers shall find it more comfortable to buy it throug the normal commercial channels. <br /><br />If the illegal distribution of 3D files which are protected by an IP right can be stopped, regulated, managed or even made redundant by modified business models, I don't think 3D printer should cause much upheaval. <br /><br />Kind Regards,<br />SamuelS. Gebbettnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-30660062039229078022015-06-14T13:26:25.402+01:002015-06-14T13:26:25.402+01:00"Perhaps, however, this Kat is ultimately not..."<i>Perhaps, however, this Kat is ultimately not asking the right questions.</i>"<br /><br />You are not.<br /><br />I winced repeatedly throughout the article at the linguistic gymnastics being performed to define "counterfeiting" as <i>necessarily</i> requiring a complex and extensive mechanism.<br /><br />It does not.<br /><br />Any visit to a local swap meet or even eBay or other such low-level transactional place reveals that the attempt to place a detailed and complex structure as some form of prerequisite to the act of counterfeiting reveals the error of such an effort.<br /><br />All that is being done here is setting up a strawman of a certain type of counterfeiter. The plain fact is that this certain type of counterfeiter is not - and never has been - the exclusive meaning of counterfeiter, and that the rights holder loses out every bit as much in a lost sale to a mass-producer counterfeiter as he does to a backyard low volume counterfeiter.<br /><br />I would also add that the discussion concerning cost and ubiquity of the counterfeiting machines rather poorly misses the point that the evolution of the market is changing that dynamic. The discussion reminds me of several famous quotes denigrating the idea that a personal computer would ever find widespread acceptance in the marketplace (and now, the advancements have made even cell phones to have FAR more personal computing power than that person - a highly respected and knowledgeable expert in his field - would have contemplated.<br /><br />Perhaps the author should take a look at the situation from the shoes of the person having the rights that are being transgressed, rather than some aggregate societal viewpoint that "necessarily" invokes complex mechanisms...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com