UC Berkeley Group Working On Creating Inexpensive 3-D Printer Materials 66
phrackthat writes "A UC Berkeley group, in a bid to drive down the costs of 3-D printing, has been focusing on more natural materials such as salt, wood, ceramics and concrete (the last two, while not naturally occurring, are made of naturally occurring components). The use of these materials create new avenues for architecture, such as printing buildings. Professor Ronald Rael, the head of the project, stated that these materials and the designs they enable will require new IP protections — 'This is going to require some IP protection for designs, so if you design architecture in the computer, you're protected, just as music and movies are.' I wonder if he's ever heard of design patents?"
Already covered by copyright (Score:2, Informative)
"Does this mean people can download your building and print it?" he said. "This is going to require some IP protection for designs, so if you design architecture in the computer, you're protected, just as music and movies are."
Designs are already protected, as they are a work. It's no different than the 3D models we already deal with in the game industry. A person spent a lot of time creating the files, and copyright law already includes such creative work.
In fact if you want to, you can license your architecture designs. If you want to share them with everyone, you can use one of the Creative Commons license. That way nobody can (legally) take your name off it, but it can otherwise be shared freely.
Re:Non Fantastic (Score:4, Informative)
Synthetic