Digital Rights Management for 3D Printing?

Additive manufacturing (AM) is often referred to as a disruptive technology. The ability for individuals or small companies to manufacture products without relying on big business is a fairly fundamental shift in how people shop. Think of the shift in shopping habits that arose after the Internet really got going. While AM isn’t to that point yet, the technology has that sort of potential.

Of course, the technology also has the cottontail to be a boon for pirating. We’ve covered some of this ground before, and, to this point, nothing has really changed in either the potential for abuse or the possibility of knee-jerk reprisals. One man has a plan for the future of digital rights management (DRM) as pertaining to AM.

Nathan Myhrvold, owner of Intellectual Ventures has secured a patent that would apply DRM technology to AM. The idea is to include software in 3D printers that checks to see if the user has the rights to print a file before beginning the build process, much how a pirated DVD might not work because of DRM coding.

“You load a file into your printer, then your printer checks to make sure it has the rights to make the object, to make it out of what material, how many times, and so on,” said Michael Weinberg, a staff lawyer at the non-profit Public Knowledge, speaking to Technology Review. “It’s a very broad patent.”

While corporations and lawyers might like DRM, it’s never been very popular with the public. DRM has repeatedly been the cause of serious errors in software that includes it, and attempts to use it to protect MP3 files have resulted in similar problems. In fact, a quick Google search using the term “DRM” reveals “DRM removal” as the second most searched for term, and I’d bet large that not all those searching for DRM removal are hackers or pirates.

It should be noted that nothing about a patent requires companies to include DRM in their 3D printers. An astute observer might also note that a patent doesn’t necessarily indicate working technology, just an idea. Perhaps the biggest problem with this particular patent (just the patent, not DRM) is the man holding it.

Myhrvold’s company owns thousands of patents and little in the way of actual products. NPR did a story (I suggest checking out the article, it’s fascinating) about Myhrvold in which he was described as a “patent troll.” The basic business model of his company seems to be: buy up patents, wait for someone to actually produce a product that is similar to one or more of them, and then sue.

This doesn’t seem like the way forward to me. I can think of too many variables that could turn an attempt at using DRM for AM into a fiasco. What if someone designs an object at home that the software erroneously identifies as copyrighted material, and then promptly refuses to print it? How often will the software require updating to maintain a library of pertinent information? Hopefully manufacturers and the IP crowd can come up with something a little more reliable than DRM.

Below you’ll find a video that talks about IP and 3D printing.

Sources: Technology Review, NPR