The first formal attempt to apply copyright law to regulate content on a 3D printing repository has raised some interesting and thorny legal questions.

Imagine it’s the year 2050. You wake up groggily to the voice of your robot butler, who gently reminds you it’s your 30th anniversary. You’re dismayed to have forgotten (again), but not at all worried—while your car still doesn’t fly, you are the proud owner of a dishwasher-sized 3D printer in your kitchen that connects wirelessly to your home network. You hop onto Amazon, navigate an extensive selection of 3D files, and buy a Tiffany-licensed CAD file for a piece of jewelry she’s had her eye on. You choose your material (hopefully you’ve got some precious metal composite somewhere), hit print, and a few minutes later, your only concern is how to wrap the bracelet you just fabricated.

But what if, instead of buying a licensed model on Amazon, you could simply download a torrent for the same bracelet? The current IP regime isn’t particularly well-suited for regulating that kind of activity, but if history is any guide, rightsholders will seek to apply traditional notions of copyright and patent against any party that makes infringing 3D designs available without authorization….