This & P2P mesh “internet” are Doctorow’s favorite topics, if his stories are any indication
My favorite of his short stories on the subject, Printcrime: http://craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-_Overclocked...
Copyright vs. 3D printing
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#12I think we're finding out the absurdity of copyright and patents by forcing these kind of concepts to face the redutio ad absurdum of the day, which are technologies like 3D printing. On the other hand, the past is full of interesting example of PATENT FAIL like Whitney's failure to enforce the cotton gin, but he got rich with producing munition for the US army, while at the same time inventing the concept of interch…
There's a great book about all of this, "Against Intellectual Monopoly." [1] There's an interesting bit about the English/American writer thing you mention, specifically Dickens. From chapter two: The amount of revenues British authors received up front from American publishers often exceeded the amount they were able to collect over a number of years from royalties in the UK. Notice that, at the time, the US market…
UGC is one thing, but without financial backing largely enabled by IP, it’s hard to imagine the most epic and polished movies & games would still be made.
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a great book about all of this, "Against Intellectual Monopoly." [1] There's an interesting bit about the English/American writer thing you mention, specifically Dickens. From chapter two: The amount of revenues British authors received up front from American publishers often exceeded the amount they were able to collect over a number of years from royalties in the UK. Notice that, at the time, the US market…
UGC is one thing, but without financial backing largely enabled by IP, it’s hard to imagine the most epic and polished movies & games would still be made.
A great recent counterexample to this is Avatar, right? Super expensive, all financed by Cameron, right? Made tons of cash.
There will probably be less made, you're right. But they'll still get made.
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
UGC is one thing, but without financial backing largely enabled by IP, it’s hard to imagine the most epic and polished movies & games would still be made.
A great recent counterexample to this is Avatar, right? Super expensive, all financed by Cameron, right? Made tons of cash. There will probably be less made, you're right. But they'll still get made.
But he recouped the money through charging people to see the movie. Not a counter-example at all.
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
A great recent counterexample to this is Avatar, right? Super expensive, all financed by Cameron, right? Made tons of cash. There will probably be less made, you're right. But they'll still get made.
But he recouped the money through charging people to see the movie. Not a counter-example at all.
He did. It was also available to download for free on the Internet.
"No IP" does not mean "You can't charge for things." Enough people would rather go to a movie theater than get on Bittorrent that he made his money back.
Side note: I was one of those people. I wear Pirate Bay tshirts around, I'd throw out all IP law if I was in charge... but I did pay money to go to the theater to see Avatar. Going to the theater and getting that crazy huge screen, great sound system, and (maybe) the 3D was totally worth it.
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
But he recouped the money through charging people to see the movie. Not a counter-example at all.
He did. It was also available to download for free on the Internet. "No IP" does not mean "You can't charge for things." Enough people would rather go to a movie theater than get on Bittorrent that he made his money back. Side note: I was one of those people. I wear Pirate Bay tshirts around, I'd throw out all IP law if I was in charge... but I did pay money to go to the theater to see Avatar. Going to the theater an…
Fascinating his wife’s movie, released the same year, actively litigated those who shared the movie online.
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
But we'd move forward faster if we had both startups and university research working on the problem. I'm not saying that it quashes all of it, just that it's set back personal fabrication 25 years.
I'm not saying that it quashes all of it, just that it's set back personal fabrication 25 years. Forgive me for my historical ignorance, is there any sort of open hardware movement 25 years ago? If not, than replication technology 25 years ago would probably have a different character.
The parallels between the makerbot/reprap and the Altair 8800 in 1975 is very interesting. It couldn't do much, but it marked the start of the "personal" computer era. Microsoft made it's first piece of software for that machine.
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#18Patents and copyright were a tremendous progress back in the 1700s when you need a "privilege" from the King to undertake about anything. Nowadays they're just some sort of fossilized roadblock from the past. Here's another fine example of this sorry state of the matter.
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#19Next step: automated home chemistry setups that turn near-arbitrary feedstock containing the right elements into soap, food, shampoo, beer, plastic resin, ...
Re: Copyright vs. 3D printing
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
But he recouped the money through charging people to see the movie. Not a counter-example at all.
He did. It was also available to download for free on the Internet. "No IP" does not mean "You can't charge for things." Enough people would rather go to a movie theater than get on Bittorrent that he made his money back. Side note: I was one of those people. I wear Pirate Bay tshirts around, I'd throw out all IP law if I was in charge... but I did pay money to go to the theater to see Avatar. Going to the theater an…
The fact that it worked for one movie does not mean that it would work any other movie.
The hook with Avatar was that it was a spectacle deliberately designed to be seen in 3D on the biggest screen possible, to the extent that there's very little point not seeing it in a movie theatre.
It's a unique example and its impact (and profitability) would be lessened by a) competition by similar movies and b) greater adoption of home 3D hardware.