Published at LXer:

It's becoming increasingly clear that the Internet's perfect copying machine makes copyright largely irrelevant today: once a copy is online somewhere, it's impossible to take it down everywhere. Could the arrival of digital 3D printers like the open source RepRap do the same for patents, by making it possible for anyone to download and print off analogue objects? With copyright and patents powerless, what might manufacturing companies turn to in order to differentiate themselves from counterfeit versions? How about trade secrets and trademarks?

Read More...