Is the Disarming Corruptor Application Artistic Piracy?

No one could deny that 3D printing is an amazing piece of technology that is changing manufacturing in almost every field. That truth doesn’t keep the technology from being used for shady ends. Thieves have used 3D printers to help them steal credit card information at banks and to make phony credit cards that can fool automated tellers.

While those kinds of Ocean’s Eleven type thefts are a problem, the more general brand of theft that has companies worried is piracy. Given a scanner, it isn’t hard to reproduce copyrighted objects, if you don’t mind a plastic reproduction. As the technology improves, however, home systems will eventually be capable of printing in a variety of materials at a reasonable cost.

This corrupted version of Micky Mouse doesn’t look much like the original, but the design could be repaired with Disarming Corruptor. Courtesy of Matthew Plummer-Fernandez.

As might be expected, a number of different entrepreneurs have stepped forward with ideas on how to deal with this potential pitfall, including solutions that employ everything from DRM to quantum dots. The world being what it is, not everyone is impressed with yet more security being added to the digital and technological realms.

Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, artist and creative technologist for Goldsmith College’s Interaction Research Studio, is one of the unimpressed. Plummer-Fernandez first encountered the problems surrounding intellectual property (IP) and 3D printing the hard way when he designed an “artistic representation” of Mickey Mouse. The artist was dismayed when he couldn’t find any company willing to print his design, for fear of inviting Disney’s legal wrath.

Part of Plummer-Fernandez’s artistic endeavors includes distorting images to produce original works using an algorithm. He put the algorithm to work on Mickey Mouse and was eventually able to produce something that service bureaus were willing to print, but wasn’t pleased with the legal runaround.

Thus was born the Disarming Corruptor (DC). The software uses Plummer-Fernandez’s algorithm to distort a 3D design, and can also be used to repair the design. By adding some fairly simple key values, the program allows individuals to corrupt a file and send it to a friend, who can then repair it without anyone being able to intercept the file and inspect its contents.

From Plummer-Fernandez’s webpage:

“In a time of prolific online surveillance, crackdowns on file-sharing, and a growing concern for the 3D printing of illegal items and copyright protected artefacts, DC is a free software application that helps people to circumvent these issues.”

“Inspired by encryption rotor machines such as the infamous Enigma Machine, the application runs an algorithm that is used to both corrupt STL files into a visually-illegible state by glitching and rotating the 3D mesh, and to allow a recipient to reverse the effect to restore it back to its original form. The file recipient would need both the application and the unique seven digit settings used by the sender, entering the incorrect settings would only damage the file further.”

Ironically, Disarming Corruptor is essentially the same kind of encryption program often used to ensure file security to fight theft. Plummer-Fernandez insists he developed the program as a kind of digital protest, but the fact remains that it is a handy tool for those who intend on using 3D printing for illegal ends. Is this the opening salvo in a new battle between piracy and IP, or just a continuation of the same fight that first gained notice with music file sharing?

Below you’ll find a video about Plummer-Fernandez’s Disarming Corruptor.

Sources: Wired, Plummerfernandez.com