The Pirate Bay Introduces ‘Physibles’: Napster For Physical Objects
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120124/03113717519/pirate-bay-introduces-physibles-napster-physical-objects.shtml
I have been keeping an eye on this 3D printing idea over the last couple of decades. It is still very much a niche industry, but it is evolving at pretty steady pace and it is easy to see that it will eventually reach the logical conclusion of being able to make nearly anything based on nothing more than a CAD drawing (suitably detailed, naturally).
I think the idea of tucking the potential copyright issues related to more tangible things (like the products produced by the CAD files) into the back of the noggin as we address the SOPA/PIPA issues going forward is a smart thing to do (which, naturally, means there isn’t any chance of that happening). Personally, I think that unless the powers-that-be manage to torpedo the Internet (or neuter it to the point that ability for people like me to reach people like you becomes impossible) that our society (indeed, the world’s society) will move to the point where the only currency is value added. This is related to my idea of the pure virtual economy that I keep thinking about but haven’t put fingers to keyboard yet, but I see on the horizon (again, if not blocked by the current oligarchy) that there will be essentially no utility to organizations like the Hollywood or music industry, just people that provide raw content (like my ‘original content’ posts) or people who aggregate and/or comment on other raw content (the bulk of this blog). This, of course, means that people can no longer rest on their laurels, but must constantly add value to something and further, it would mean that there is absolutely no value in the current system of Hollywood and the music industry with gatekeepers taking huge cuts of the profits to do little to nothing (to be fair, in the early days, they did provide added value through marketing and promotion, but that value today is rapidly approaching zero). Naturally, that terrifies the oligarchy because taken to its logical extreme, what today accounts for wealth and power will tomorrow not mean a damn thing and basically once everyone else realizes this (which, given their sheeple tendencies, I figure they are quite safe at this time), they are now going to live like trolls shoulder to shoulder with the other homeless hedge fund managers.
