The future is rapidly approaching and 3-D printing is about to change everything. We are already printing books on demand and those are copyrighted, but what happens when we start converting 2-D to 3-D and go off on our merry-way printing up a storm? Okay so, let's talk shall we?
Copyright Law normally has to do with 2-D work, or in the case of a 3-D sculpture a component within has to be severable to be to by copyrighted, but if a 3-D printed object is all one piece, part of something larger, integrated into the whole in a holistic way, will it still be copyrightable as a picture, image, or work of art?
Perhaps not, but it should right? Otherwise people can steal other people's work and integrate components into a 3-D printed transmission. Luckily, anything transmitted or re-broadcast does have case law protecting it if it goes by cable, radio, or satellite - but what if it goes by light-wave, that too is the future, no case law on the books for that yet.
A 3-D rendering of a 2-D image, picture, or device does apply to copyright law so if JK Rawlins has a picture of a character in Harry Potter, her company can create 3-D dolls and those are copyrighted, no one else is allowed to make those without permission, there is ample case law for this for instance Walt Disney's lawsuits against those making Disney character dolls as bootlegged pirated products. Still. The law gets fuzzy with regards to such things as artist renderings, architectural drawings, or building blueprinted plans.
Now then, this gets us into a rather challenging issue with regards to copyright law protection for 3-D printing. For instance, someone can take a picture, use special software on a CADCAM to design a 3-D version, figure out the dimensions, and then turn on the prototype making laser, water, or machine cutter and make it, likewise they could send that newly created file to someone else or to their own 3-D printer. It might be possible for a new technology time-stamping and giving credit to the designer, meaning they automatically can get a royalty trickle payment, perhaps that is the answer here.
If someone takes several objects and incorporates them into a 3-D printed work perhaps each layer of new changes or embedded images would be listed in this case, so everyone can get paid. However, this also gets into gray area with these new iPhone apps where you can take multiple pictures from different angles creating a 3-D image, which you'd then be able to stick into a software program and then send to a 3-D printer - who owns the object?
If you take a picture of something that has a patent, and then you make a copy, you've violated the patent, and it doesn't matter what method you used to re-produce it, but if you take a 2-D object with a copyright and convert it to 3-D now we get into wickedly problematic case law, where some would be covered and some not. What I am saying here, is we have a problem coming forth in 3-D copyright, patent, and even trademark law you see? If you'd like to discuss this with me at a higher level please shoot me an email.
Cite and Reference:
"How to Handle Basic Copyright and Trademark Problems," by Richard Dannay, Practicing Law Institute Audio Cassette version, New York, 1990.
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