[p2p-research] cad piracy

Sun May 23 12:36:17 CEST 2010

Hi Kevin,

can't remember if I asked you to comment on this for the blog, if not,
thanks for considering it,

Michel

On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:43 PM, Kevin Carson wrote:
> http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1400

The Looming Dark Horizon: When the IP Mess Hits Industrial Design & Co.

"""
{Temporary Note, 6 October 2009: Core77 visitors might want to read
“Update 2″ at the bottom of this post. And by the way, “the
(uncredited) writer” is me.}

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: my primary interest in
tracking the intellectual property issues currently plaguing the music
and movie industries, waiting in the ebook wings for book publishers,
and even frustrating hordes of bloggers whose content is appropriated
and used to create spamblogs, is that at some point their problems
become my problems; becomes the problem of anyone who designs and
fabricates real products for a living.

At some point, p2p networks won’t have just mp3 files, they’ll have
CAD files. When they do, the first thing that will happen is factories
in distant corners of the manufacturing world will start churning out
bootleg product at a pace that will make current infringement look
like pre-Napster music “sharing”. After that people will start using
locally-based fabbing services to rapid manufacture parts the way
people used to photocopy stuff at the local copy shop. Eventually,
home-based 3D printers (or, possibly in the more distant future,
nano-factories) will allow people to fab something as easily as they
currently print their digital photos.

That’s the future. It’s all up for grabs. Creatives can either try to
fight it or they can figure out new business models.

-

One would hope the trials and tribulations of deep-pocketed
conglomerates would make an impression. Fighting just doesn’t make
much sense to me. Unfortunately, however, I see more resistance to
infringement than I see creative effort put towards nullifying the
effects of that infringement. So while it’s interesting to see
formerly disinterested parties – mechanics, housewives, teenagers –
grab a big clue when, say, someone copybots their Second Life
creations and gets away with a few pennies in sales, it’s mostly
disillusioning to see the same “it’s all mine” mindset when they
respond.

And it doesn’t help when a catalyst for major change like the
Radiohead “pay what you want” music offering turns out to be,
according to their management, a ploy to simply sell more CDs the
old-fashioned way. While they could still leverage the information
they collected and pursue a more experiential solution – like giving
people who used their download system a first crack at increasingly
hard-to-come-by concert tickets as well as building up or linking in
with some kind of reputation-based system (like iKarma) – by not doing
so up front, they’ve arguably diminished their impact on user
behavior. What a missed opportunity. If you read some of the “what’s
the big deal” comments on Boing Boing, this missed opportunity is the
“big deal” to me. And their seemingly greedy motivations are almost
certainly a big deal to people like Cory Doctorow and friends.

-

I’m not saying I disagree with the concept of intellectual property.
Far from it. The laughable arguments put out by people like those
behind Pirate Bay melt away when one realizes that they too are in it
for the almighty dollar… courtesy of ad revenue coming from both tiny
adult “services” and large corporations like Capital One.

What I’m saying is that I think of IP law as a tool intended to
benefit society by way of rewarding individual effort with reasonable
protection; not the other way around. Unfortunately corporate
influence and political corruption has turned the whole thing on its
head, with the result being the polarized positioning with which I’ve
previously taken issue.

The problem is, if you’re an up-n-coming content producer, you’re
pretty much stuck in the middle. Which is why I’m saying that now,
more than ever, some creative effort needs to go into circumventing
the entrenched systems: those of both the corporate world and the
“sharing” consumers. And that effort starts with simply keeping up
with the news; something I don’t believe most industrial designers (or
other creatives) spend much time doing.

To that end, here are some links to IP-related news which should be of
interest to (industrial) designers; things I’ve been collecting for
the past few months. Because I see increasing convergence between real
product and virtual product, most of them deal with relevant
developments on that front and may seem of little value, but once you
get past the content type and into the behavior (which is what laws
are all about), you’ll hopefully understand why I find them of worth.

If you’re a content producer, consider this time expenditure an
investment in your future. So here, in no particular order but at
least somewhat-logically grouped, are some links:

[lots of great links]

{Update 2: For the Core77 visitors, this entry is a bit old and thus
doesn’t reflect current developments. Among those developments are the
increasingly kirkyan-like toys being developed linking tangible
product to virtual goods; mentioned in the original text of this entry
and something I’ve discussed at length throughout my blog. Also of
note is that the virtual goods industry – unlike the industrial design
industry – is booming. Some of the incomes being reported by
individual content creators is substantial; seven-figures substantial.
Lastly, if you’re unfamiliar, I’d recommend learning about companies
like RideMakerz and ToyBots. The last especially made it clear in a
recent video that they were more interested in profiting from virtual
goods than tangible product sales… even though they were presenting a
physical prototype to interested parties.

There are many things going on, including my current Kickstarter
project – the 100K Stray Toasthed Pull Toys experiment – intended to
find a way to fund an open source product development effort which
bypasses most intellectual property issues. It’s not an amazing
product idea; in fact, it’s pretty old and pretty average; and not too
different from what Build-A-Bear and Automoblox are already doing. And
it’s just like a lot of projects professional designers are asked to
spend time on every day. While it might not – probably will not – be
funded, it will potentially set a precedent for how much a typical
design effort is worth. If you’re a toy designer, I would expect you
to be especially curious. I’m aware of some of the recent difficulties
facing that particular niche and what I’m doing might point a way
forward for you. I certainly hope so.}
"""

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

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