

How DRM will infest the 3D printing revolution - ulrichkautz
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137955-how-drm-will-infest-the-3d-printing-revolution

======
thechut
3D printer owner here. While this article does raise an important point, it is
a bit sensationalist. First of all, they give scant details on the most import
part.

>...patent holder Intellectual Ventures, has managed to get an expansive
patent on 3D printing DRM.

What exactly does that mean? IV has patented a method for performing DRM on
printed objects? That is a long way from mandating DRM on all objects. The 3D
printing community, and open source hardware community in general has been
preparing for this. The Institute for Emerging Innovation at Public Knowledge
is an organization at DC that is helping to increase awareness of 3D printing
openness and is working with congress people to make sure things like 3D
printing DRM cannot happen. Unlike the P2P file sharing fight, we are ready
for this one.

Also a quick note about guns since this article, and many about 3D printing
now mention it. Yes, there is a group of people working on building 3D printed
guns. However, to call this violent and providing new access is baseless and
borderline ignorant. People have been able to make real, un regulated weapons
out of actual metal for a long time. It's called a CNC mill and they have been
around for a lot longer than 3D printers. A friend of mine goes to a trade
school where you learn how to work on CNC mills and the first project he ever
did was to build a working .45. People being able to build guns is nothing
new, and anybody that thinks a plastic gun is going to be so much worse is
just fear mongering.

~~~
wodow
Surely the issue is that users of 3D printers will be able to manufacture guns
at a lower time cost, material cost and with much lower skill required?

i.e. buying a 3D printer plus material and sending a blueprint file to it is
an order of magnitude simpler than acquiring and learning to use a milling
machine.

~~~
debacle
The quality of a 3D printed gun would be abysmal using current technology, and
a 3D printed gun would likely be single-use, therefore really only useful for
terrorists.

But it's not hard for the terrorist to make a single-use gun now. You could
probably make a pretty lethal and reliable single-use gun from $20 dollars in
parts from your local hardware store.

~~~
Dove
_therefore really only useful for terrorists_

What? I'm finding it hard to believe that an odd-looking 3d-printed single-use
gun would be _useful_ to terrorists (or criminals in general, actually). What
you need as a mugger, for example, is a recognizable threat. The gun doesn't
necessarily need to _work_ but it does need to _look like a gun_. Terrorists
have it even worse, as they're generally looking to threaten a whole lobby
full of people; what they're waving around had better look _really_
_automatic_. And had probably better work. I can't imagine that a single-shot
weapon that looked unrecognizable would suit their needs.

A single-shot gun might be useful to a murderer, but hardly an ideal choice
(what if you miss)? And it might be useful in a self-defense scenario, but the
same caveat applies.

In fact, they actually make single-shot guns.
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derringer>) And they aren't used by terrorists!
They're used by pirates in movies. And in real life, generally, women carry
them in purses.

Which, to come full circle, means I would support the availability of
3D-printed guns, since I perceive the most likely use would be in a self-
defense scenario as a "well, it's better than nothing" option.

~~~
debacle
I didn't say single-shot, I said single-use.

It's very unlikely that it will be possible to make a safe, practical,
reusable gun from a 3D printer in the foreseeable future.

~~~
Dove
You're probably right, though I'm always hesitant to bet against ingenuity.

I'm sorry if I came off as aggressive in my criticism. It just struck me as
silly that terrorists -- you know, the guys that buy military hardware from
shady international arms dealers and have their own supply and manufacturing
chains for explosives -- would be significantly enabled by crappy 3D-printed
handguns.

~~~
debacle
I don't think _anyone_ is going to be significantly enabled by crappy
3D-printed handguns, but if anyone could see utility from it it would be
terrorists.

My second point was an attempt to point out that it's probably cheaper and
easier to create a single-use weapon now without the use of the 3D printer.

~~~
Dove
_if anyone could see utility from it it would be terrorists._

How do you figure that?

------
debacle
A better title would be "How DRM will completely fail to infest the 3D
printing revolution."

Do you really think they're going to be able to legislate away people's
ability to digitally print consumer goods? Thusfar, they've been unsuccessful
at legislating away people's ability to copy data, and the consumer urge to
copy a physical good will be orders of magnitude stronger than a bit of audio
or video.

In short, anyone who tries to restrict individuals' ability to print goods is
on a fool's errand.

~~~
baddox
> _Thusfar, they've been unsuccessful at legislating away people's ability to
> copy data_

Tell that to the thousands of people who got sued several years ago, or the
Pirate Bay guys who are either in prison or facing prison sentences.

~~~
katbyte
_> Tell that to the thousands of people who got sued several years ago, or the
Pirate Bay guys who are either in prison or facing prison sentences._

compared to the 10s, 100s of millions who still share, download and copy
copyrighted media everyday?

~~~
baddox
By "legislate away," did debacle mean completely eliminating file sharing? I
presumed he just meant to firmly establish law and legal precedent that
prohibits IP infringement.

------
samwillis
I don't think it will, the difference with 3D printing is that the consumer
end of the industry is being driven by the small start-ups and "Maker"
movement. All of these open source 3D printers will never implement DRM and
the low cost ones that do will get hacked by the same people.

In order for the DRM to work it needs to be decoded at the last moment and
would therefore need to be implemented directly into the electronics of the
printer. In order for that to work the printer itself will need to be able to
decode the 3D files and plan the tool route, a job that is better done by the
PC. I think it will be cost prohibitive to implement in a secure manor.

With Blu Ray and HDMI there were massive multi billion dollar companies
driving the direction of the design. That just isn't the case with 3D printing
and is unlikely to be the case until far to long after consumer 3D printing is
established.

~~~
l33tbro
That may be true, but what about when bigger players like Apple, Sony,
Samsung, or perhaps even an emerging startup join the party? Many a comparison
has been made to the home computer clubs of the 1970's - similarly DIY but
produced giant companies like Apple who popularized the home computer. Same
goes with AOL in the mid-90s crashing web and bringing the Eternal September.

I guess my point is that we are really in the halcyon days of 3d printing.
This is an emerging technology. It's exciting, it's about experimentation, and
it's a genuinely open-source user environment. But this phase has a shelf-
life, and once 3d printing reaches critical mass, the Maker hackers will move
onto the next thing of interest (rightly so) and the corporations will swoop
in on the huge money making opportunities. It is just the way the world works.

Still ... DRM will never work. Whether it be a case of torrents for the Ikea
desk, or firmware hacks to re-route your printer from phoning home to the
corporation - hackers will find a way.

------
noonespecial
Here's hoping Intellectual Ventures makes a nice secret shill/shell corp fully
devoted to trolling the hell out of anyone who even tries to put DRM into a 3D
printer.

~~~
mtgx
That was my first thought, too. This may end up being a good thing if IV
trolls just about anyone wanting to use DRM on their 3D printable objects. It
would mean most companies wouldn't bother to deal with DRM and IV.

~~~
mindslight
And my first thought as well. Except that it's dead wrong when that troll sets
up shop on K street.

~~~
noonespecial
Yeah. The greatest heist a troll can pull is to get a patent forced on
everyone by law.

I always thought that once the government mandates the use of a specific
technology, it should automatically force the patent into the public domain.
Anything else sets up a set of incentives that are just a bit more than way
too perverse for the public good.

------
0wza
A peculiar comparison to P2P. But I think I know what he's getting at. It's
the idea of "enablement". As in, enabling easy infringement. But if my
understanding is correct (it might not be), so long as there are alternative
non-infringing uses that are significant, this hurdle, set by incumbent
industries, can be overcome.

Perhaps good examples were analog cassette and video tapes. They enabled easy
infringement. But they had so many beneficial uses, the courts were not
persuaded by the incumbent industries. And Congress even created exceptions
for personal use copying ("home taping") in the statute.

There is nothing inherently infringing about P2P, or even inherently enabling.
Nothing says you have to use it to share bits with thousands of people or
more. Back in the analog days millions of people made recordings and shared
them with each other (i.e. people they knew: friends, colleagues, etc.),
without being sued. It's only when some people tried to started businesses
selling mass produced copies to the public (i.e. people they didn't know:
customers) without authorization that they were sued. These "bootleggers"
were, as I remember it, a very small percentage of total number of people
using the available recording technology.

Not quite enough to keep an enormously useful technology like audio and video
recording out of reach from the public.

------
tlrobinson
How will a patent troll holding a patent on this help "infest" 3D printing? If
anything it seems like it would inhibit it.

------
rimantas
Can someone help me? 3D pringing does not seem interesting to me so I know
very little about. I also assume, that it is not interesting to Joe Average.
So my question is: what am I missing and how wrong I am that application of it
is pretty limited? I guess I should notice, that recently I developed kind of
aversion to cheap plastics and tend to think that this is what 3D printing
gives you. How wrong am I?

~~~
islon
A 3D printer itself is not interesting for most people. What is interesting is
the marketing you can do with its sub-products.

\- lego machine that lets you create your own legos? check. \- style-it-
yourself house furniture? check. \- toys/dolls creator for kids? check. I
could go on forever.

~~~
MrMember
It could be huge in tabletop board game market too. Why buy hundreds of
dollars worth of miniatures when you print your own for much less?

------
reustle
"There are already people out there investigating the feasibility of 3D
printing gun parts. It might not be doable now, but it will be one day. Before
that happens, simpler weapons like “brass knuckles” made out of super-hard
plastic could worry governments where such items are illegal. Weapon laws are
not about intellectual property, but they get us to the same place —
restricted use of 3D printing. Copyright concerns can and will piggyback on
this issue."

Because I couldn't already create "brass knuckles" out of wood in 10 minutes?

------
regularfry
The 3D-DRM patent only makes sense with legislative teeth behind printer
regulation. It might be naive to assume that IV and the people they can rally
to that cause (Nike? Lego? Any car manufacturer ever?) wouldn't want to dump
$BIGMONEY into lobbying to make that happen.

------
rm999
This article contains very little substance even though it sounds like it
would. I suspect an editor changed the title from "may" to "will". Of course
DRM may appear in 3d printing, DRM is common in almost all types of digital
media. But it is by no means ubiquitous.

------
ommunist
This sound bad. The intermediary DRM-checking server will inevitably leak, so
your original designs will go to hands of competitors just like your mobile
phone number in the UK leaks to every txt-spammer in India, once you
registered at InfoSecurity expo online.

------
omnibobble
DRM will be toxic to 3D printing but that won't stop manufacturers from
trying.

~~~
illuminate
With all the recent hubbub over printing firearm components, I wonder how
quickly legislators will demand the equivalent of
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography> for tracking specific
maker-level printers.

------
FootballMuse
You wouldn't steal a car... Nope, but I'd copy one with my 3d printer.

~~~
jdechko
Which isn't really stealing because you aren't physically taking anything from
the original owner, oh... wait...

------
jes5199
will it even be possible to DRM 3D objects? How are you going to do that? Can
you put machine-readable watermarks onto physical surfaces that aren't
trivially circumvented?

------
stephengillie
See: How DRM infested the recorded media revolution.

