Wired On 3-D Printers As Fraud Enablers

An anonymous reader writes Citing a report from the Gartner Group estimating $100 billion in intellectual property losses within five years, Joshua Greenbaum warns of "the threat of a major surge in counterfeiting" as cheap 3-D printers get more sophisticated materials. Writing for Wired, Greenbaum argues that preventing counterfeiting "promises to be a growth market," and suggests that besides updating IP laws, possible solutions include nanomaterials for "watermarking" authentic copies or even the regulation of 3-D printing materials. Major retailers like Amazon are already offering 3-D print-on-demand products — though right now their selection is mostly limited to novelties like customized bobbleheads and Christmas ornaments shaped like cannabis leaves. Apropos: Smithonian Magazine has an article that makes a good companion piece to this one on the long political history of the copy machine, which raised many of the same issues being rediscovered in the context of 3-D printing.

Comments

Re:What kind of counterfeits are they worried abou

[hairyfeet]

Actually There is an exotic mechanic just outside of Bangkok whose specialty is making "Fauxrari" and "Lambaux" and any other exotic you want, under the hood they are Toyota and Mazda pumped up ricer motors. Considering his builds run between $65k-$80k they are for the semi-rich in third world countries to look like they have more money than they really do. Rumor has it most of Saddam's later rides were made by this guy, who brags his vehicles are safer while being lighter as he makes his panels out of carbon fiber from casts of the real parts.

Sorry I can't seem to find a link, I read it in a magazine,Wired IIRC. Of course even if I found photos it would look just like the real thing as the Wired article had him posing by some of his builds and his attention to detail was just incredible, I bet if you parked the real 65 Ferrari next to his you wouldn't know which is which by merely looking.