New York, NY -- Well-known site Pirate Bay recently announced that it had added a category to their download site which they were calling “Physibles”. This move has caused a lot of debate in a short span and articles have been posted on major technology sites like ZDNet, PCWorld, and PC Magazine, just to name a few.
As we at Castle Ink, and others, have discussed 3-D printing over the last several months, copyright infringement has been at or near the top on the list of concerns about the technology. Swedish-based Pirate Bay, believed by many is an example of the types of sites targeted by SOPA and PIPA last week, has a very controversial reputation. With their Physibles section, they plan on posting schematics for several 3-D objects, thus allowing users to simply download them, and then create the object themselves with a 3-D printer.
A telling quote comes from Pirate Bay who said “‘We believe that things like three-dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future, we will print your spare parts for your vehicles.’” With statements like that, it’s no wonder people are talking. They continue:
“‘The benefit to society is huge. No more shipping huge amounts of products around the world. No more shipping the broken products back. No more child labour. We’ll be able to print food for hungry people. We’ll be able to share not only a recipe, but the full meal.’”
The Recycler reports that currently they have plans for seven products on their site. While we can almost understand their idea, the fact remains that intellectual property is a very real thing. If OEMs and non-OEMs are fighting over patents for ink cartridges, the idea of having entire products printed which will cost much more, is a very slippery slope. There may instances of users who create their own schematics can share them through Pirate Bay which may prove to be legitimate, but it would seem that there as many risks as there are rewards at this point.
