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UK Copyright Extension On Designed Objects Is 'Direct Assault' On 3D Printing (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A recent extension of UK copyright for industrially manufactured artistic works represents "a direct assault on the 3D printing revolution," says Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge. The UK government last month extended copyright for designs from 25 years to the life of the designer plus 70 years. In practice, this is likely to mean a copyright term of over 100 years for furniture and other designed objects. Writing on the Private Internet Access site, Falkvinge says that the copyright extension will have important consequences for makers in the UK and EU: "This change means that people will be prohibited from using 3D printing and other maker technologies to manufacture such objects, and that for a full century." Falkvinge points out a crucial difference between the previous UK protection for designs, which was based on what are called "design rights" plus a short copyright term, and the situation now, which involves design rights and a much-longer copyright term. With design rights, "you're absolutely and one hundred percent free to make copies of it for your own use with your own tools and materials," Falkvinge writes. "When something is under copyright, you are not. Therefore, this move is a direct assault on the 3D printing revolution." "Moving furniture design from a [design right] to copyright law means that people can and will indeed be prosecuted for manufacturing their own furniture using their own tools," Falkvinge claims.
Imagine you have 30 year old desk of a nice design. A specific plastic piece of the desk (for argument's sake) breaks. That piece cannot be purchased because the desk went out of production 25 years ago and replacement parts are not available. So you go ahead and print the piece you need - either downloading the 3D model or creating a copy of it yourself. You have a fixed desk. A few days later you get a visit from the boys in blue for copyright infringement. Replace the desk with a car, toy, or some other widget. According to your argument - you should spend possibly thousands on getting a new thing, rather than spending $1 and a little time to maintain the thing. According to your argument the rest of the world should shame you into wasting your money. Me, I'd rather not shame anyone for doing anything reasonable like keeping their stuff maintained.
I disagree, 10 years is a bit long.
I will argue that doctors, firemen, first responders, etc do more important important work than "creators", yet none of them is paid one additional cent for past work.