Printcrime

by Cory Doctorow

Printcrime is a stylistic example of microfiction from Cory Doctorow. The short story was first published in January 2006 in Nature Magazine and tackles Copyright and 3D printing issues found in a dystopian future history. Only takes a few minutes to read this short story, but it certainly makes you contemplate future legal issues when 3D printers are readily available.

Description

Introduction to Printcrime by Cory Doctorow:

“Printcrime came out of a discussion I had with a friend who’d been to hear a spokesman for the British recording industry talk about the future of “intellectual property.” The record exec opined the recording industry’s great and hysterical spasm would form the template for a never-ending series of spasms as 3D printers, fabricators and rapid prototypers laid waste to every industry that relied on trademarks or patents. My friend thought that, as kinky as this was, it did show a fair amount of foresight, coming as it did from the notoriously technosqueamish record industry. I was less impressed. It’s almost certainly true that control over the production of trademarked and patented objects will diminish over the coming years of object-on-demand printing, but to focus on 3D printers’ impact on trademarks is a stupendously weird idea. It’s as if the railroad were looming on the horizon, and the most visionary thing the futurists of the day can think of to say about it is that these iron horses will have a disastrous effect on the hardworking manufacturers of oat-bags for horses. It’s true, as far as it goes, but it’s so tunnel-visioned as to be practically blind. When Nature magazine asked me if I’d write a short-short story for their back-page, I told them I’d do it, then went home, sat down on the bed and banged this one out. They bought it the next morning, and we were in business.”

Additional information

Author

Cory Doctorow

Publisher

Thunder's Mouth

Series

Short story that was part of Cory Doctorow's 2007 short story collection "Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present."

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License DeedAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 You are free: * to Share — to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work * to Remix — to make derivative works Under the following conditions: * Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor. * Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. * Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. * For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. * Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Disclaimer: Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above. This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/legalcode

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