Comments on: Myhrvold patents 3D printing DRM

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:16:00 +0000

“DRM? On my machine, you have no rights!”

By: viadd

viadd — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 03:38:00 +0000

I just bought a kit for $550 from SeeMeCNC.com and am about 30 hours into the build, with maybe 10 hours left before it is functional.
I was also looking at printrbot.com which seem to be easier to build.

(May be a double post. Disqus sucks.)

By: Calton

Calton — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:54:00 +0000

Well, it’s the sort of thing that’s gotten him a free pass from the likes of Boing Boing — until now — so it’s a hobby with PR dividends.

By: Calton

Calton — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:48:00 +0000

He’s been one of “them” — if by that you mean patent troll — for a long, long time, though you wouldn’t really have learned that through Boing Boing.

By: Lava Ritz

Lava Ritz — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 23:15:00 +0000

can anyone simply say where to get a simple 3D printer Open source which is reasonably reliable and cost effective. i can shell off $400-600 for that. Thanks

By: johnsu01

johnsu01 — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 05:50:00 +0000

Pretty funny (?) that this happened the same day we announced the first Respects Your Freedom certification for a 3D printer that of course has no DRM: http://www.fsf.org/ryf

By: taintofevil

taintofevil — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 01:47:00 +0000

There’s something analogous with paper cutting plotters. There are more expensive models that you can do whatever you want with, and there are the Cricut and other machines, where you buy designs from the manufacturer’s store. But the machines are considerably cheaper. I can imagine the market for plastic tchotchkes being similar.

By: vance_tam

vance_tam — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 00:54:00 +0000

There are a dozen or more 3D printers whose plans are freely available. All you need to do is purchase the parts from the source of your choice and build it. It’s not rocket science.

By: austinhamman

austinhamman — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:11:00 +0000

they will just make it 10% different, or take you to court with their massive amounts more money to get it overturned.
money is like a lever, the more of it you have the more power you exert.

By: austinhamman

austinhamman — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:10:00 +0000

this assumes they have a software that needs loaded. suppose i have a 3d copier, i take an existing mickey, i scan said mickey, then print off said mickey, there was no software that needed loaded from disney.
same for if i made my OWN mickey and then printed off said mickey.
the printer, in order to keep me from printing off that mickey, would need to have a database of shapes which are mickey, it would then need to match my object with its idea of what makes a mickey, which could be too broad and then a water molecule ends up being considered a mickey, or too narrow such that if the eyes are a millimetre lower or the head has less resolution than the comparison then it DOESN’T count as a mickey.
that’s the issue you run into when you are no longer talking about software but physical objects.

By: austinhamman

austinhamman — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:01:00 +0000

i had thought of something like that, though i use an array of needles instead of one (get enough needles in a grid you could put the whole tattoo on at once like a stamp) the only issue i could see is switching colours, and keeping the needle sanitary. the former could be handled by having only 3 needles one red,one green, one blue, and then applying it in a line like a printer. a 3d scanner can map out the topography of the spot its being applied so the needle knows where to go and how far to move down.
unfortunately im lazy and broke so anyone with money and ambition…go for it.

By: austinhamman

austinhamman — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:56:00 +0000

i was wondering the same thing when i seen it, where is the part that says anything about 3d printers or DRM?

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:48:00 +0000

That cookbook is an incredible thing.

Why can’t he produce more incredible things (like that)?

Instead of ruing other incredible things (like this)?

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Makes me wonder if the one way to protect Internet freedom is by applying for broad patents on anything that can threaten it, and then sue if anyone actually tries to implement it…

By: mccrum

mccrum — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:06:00 +0000

Nobody’s still going to want to spend a day making a hamburger.

By: Ronald Pottol

Ronald Pottol — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:23:00 +0000

Well, suppose Disney wanted to make sure you could only print Micky if they got paid, so to print a licensed model Mickey, you needed a printer with supported DRM, or their software will not load. I’m sure this will work out for them.

By: Lagged2Death

Lagged2Death — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:02:00 +0000

I don’t understand how this is supposed to work at all.

Suppose you’re the manufacturer of 3D printers. Why are you going to pay a patent licensing fee to someone in order to have the privledge of crippling your own product?

The makers of DVD-R drives and conventional 2D printers don’t include a feature like these, and I don’t suppose they would have any interest in adding one. Even television sets that support HDMI DRM generally include other, unprotected, input ports.

Also, although I’m not a lawyer, I’m pretty sure talk of prohibiting the printing of “trademarked” objects comprehensively misunderstands what trademark is. One violates a trademark by engaging in trade while representing yourself in a way that might confuse consumers. It’s not a trademark violation to print up your own Coca-Cola memorabilia at home. It would be a violation to try to sell it, or to use it to promote your own soda pop.

By: jackrabbitslim

jackrabbitslim — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:22:00 +0000

I thought (and think) Nathan Myhrvold’s cookbooks were awesome. Like performance art or something. Epic and impractical and beautiful and even (technically if not practically) available to the public.
But this?

Fuck you, Nate.

All the beautiful photos of sawn-in-half woks flipping stir-fry mid-flame and all the exquisitely pedantic cheeseburgers with crazy-ass mushroom ketchup in the world can’t protect you from being a flaming patent-troll douche.

Also, withering scorn from nerds on the internet. Take THAT Mr. Millionaihrvold.

By: mrtut

mrtut — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:17:00 +0000

Like marching cubes? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_cubes

By: EH

EH — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:38:00 +0000

Hey, everybody, let’s all tell Nathan we’re moving to Mars, then he’ll move there before us so he can be first. Mission accomplished.

By: Ryan Lenethen

Ryan Lenethen — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:24:00 +0000

Though it does make me smile that whoever decides that they want to actually implemenet DRM on 3D printing, will either have to pay licencing fees to this jerk, or get sued after the fact. Two wrongs do make a right!

By: Kaleberg

Kaleberg — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Perhaps we should be doing some patent trolling of our own. For example, someone should patent a 3D printing geometry grammar including all of its expansions. That is, all shapes that the grammar can generate. If the grammar is comprehensive and sufficiently vague – remember you don’t actually have to patent something that exists or can exist – it should keep people from trademarking a broad variety of shapes.

By: eagleapex

eagleapex — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:55:00 +0000

What others things we all hate? Maybe Myrhrvold can patent them too so they can go away.

By: eagleapex

eagleapex — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:54:00 +0000

the patent office is just full of rubber stamps and it’s now the courts’ job to figure out what is valid.

By: eagleapex

eagleapex — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:53:00 +0000

There’s a few that are open source and commercial. Bukobot, Ultimaker, MendelMax and the new Prusa i3

By: Bruce Bortin

Bruce Bortin — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:38:00 +0000

Au contraire… look for McMyhrvold’s™ Home Molecular Food Fabricators in, what, 2015?

By: Mantissa128

Mantissa128 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:20:00 +0000

And somewhere, Xzibit feels a chill go down his spine.

By: Matt Popke

Matt Popke — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:17:00 +0000

He wasn’t already?

By: morcheeba

morcheeba — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:13:00 +0000

Well, eventually someone will improve on the obvious non-working “solution” and the trolls will claim it was based on their previous “solution”

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:08:00 +0000

That’s actually a really clever idea. Tattooing is that mainstream now, and I’m sure there are plenty of nice white kids who yearn for a tatt, but are scared of the facey-piercey bald man. Having a freshly-scrubbed Disneyite applying tattoos would have huge appeal to the under-30 Mormon crowd.