New "Digital Rights Management" patent, aimed at 3D printing and digital fabrication tech

[Keith Mc]

"Patent Pushes Back Against 3D Printing Piracy" [sic]
... http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1394&doc_id=253069

Apparently, Nathan Myhrvold, an ex-tech officer from Microsoft,
is now in the biz of collecting patents and IP rights.
He is now staring at 3D printing and other "print on demand"
processes, with the mindset that he considers personal and
industrial digital fabrication with 3D tech "potential pirating
of design IP".

In response to this "piracy" <rolls eyes> it appears he is
starting the legal process to attempt to force in DRM
(digital rights management) into 3D printing process software.

His idea is to try to legally force the 3D printer software to
prove ownership or satisfy payment of) IP royalties before
a model MAY be printed (or otherwise digitally fabbed)
on that printer or fabricator. The patent covers a wide
range of 3D printing and digital fab processes. (See the
top article for a partial list.) "Extrusion" (ala RepRap's
FDM method) is definitely on the list!

Personally, I'm not sweating this for now. It doesn't affect
our building DIY 3D printers that use our own, or using
open source shared models and files at all.

But this DOES have the potential of becoming a "rights and
revenue" fight akin to music and movies. Definitely something
for the legal eagles here to keep an eye on.

If it ever DOES get legal traction, there may come a day that
SOME 3D models out there will require DRM software involvement
in your printer (and money transfer) if you wish to access
and print them. (But again... In an open source economy,
we just simply don't patronize those file vendors, and get
our model data from other sources. :-)

Some comments, from other sources:
... http://boingboing.net/2012/10/12/myhrvold-patents-3d-printing-d.html
... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Myhrvold
... http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2012/10/nathan-myhrvold-patents-digital-rights-management-for-3d-printers/
... http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429566/nathan-myhrvolds-cunning-plan-to-prevent-3-d-printer-piracy/

- Keith Mc.