3D printing might allow for an enforceable open hardware license

[Matt Maier]

 From the article...

"a robust open hardware framework must ensure that obligations of attribution and documentation are easily passed through complex supply chains, and that any such requirements are relatively frictionless and impose minimal transaction costs. The TAPR and CERN licenses, which do not address downstream recipients at all, do not provide an adequate framework for the easy integration of open hardware in these settings."

"Current open hardware framework [copyright, patents, contracts], however, cannot easily impose documentation or attribution obligations on downstream users, and cannot enforce their terms with effective legal remedies. Even so, an open hardware license that satisfies these requirements can be built in the technological context of three-dimensional printing."

"The manufacture of a physical object in an automated three-dimensional printing process, however, will infringe the copyright of the underlying design file...the use of digital designs and automated manufacturing creates a physical article that corresponds directly to the specifications of the digital design, and which requires the copying and transformation of the original digital file. As such, without a license, the use of the design file in a three-dimensional printing process will infringe the copyright in the design file."