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Indistinguishable from Magic: A Wizard's Guide to Copyright and 3D Printing

The defining characteristic of a 3D printer is that it turns bits into stuff. This causal connection between the world of thoughts and the world of things is more than a little uncanny. 3D printing is a technology of such surprise and wonder that it verges on the magical. It is also, Kyle Dolinsky a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Washington and Lee law review 2014-01, Vol.71 (1), p.683
Main Author: Grimmelmann, James
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The defining characteristic of a 3D printer is that it turns bits into stuff. This causal connection between the world of thoughts and the world of things is more than a little uncanny. 3D printing is a technology of such surprise and wonder that it verges on the magical. It is also, Kyle Dolinsky argues, a problem for copyright law. The heart of his note is a search for analogies to CAD files in copyright case law. It may be surprising that so little in copyright law needs to change to accommodate 3D printers. But copyright law has long been comfortable with 3D printing's defining relationship between ideas and items. For centuries, the metaphysical magicians of copyright have drawn a sharp distinction between tangible copies and intangible works. Printed objects are copies; so too, are CAD files. Moving back and forth from one to the other is just Transfiguration; the work's identity remains.
ISSN:0043-0463
1942-6658