If you want to understand the new frontier of 3D printing Copyright, Patent and Trademark law, Public Knowledge's new white paper: So, What is the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing? is a perfect resource to understand exactly where the law stands now.

The paper is a follow up to their previous 3D printing whitepaper It Will Be Awesome if They Don't Screw It Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology.  Where as the previous paper focused on the broad connection between intellectual property law and 3D printing, What's the Deal? focuses on the relationship between copyright and 3D printing.

This is an extremely helpful paper for those creating works that lie between sculptural and functional works and copyright does not cover functional objects but can in some cases cover aesthetic aspects of the functional objects. What we like to call, 'the grey area'.  With this distinction the paper also clarifies a really important point which has been confusing for many people, a Creative Commons license cannot be used to legally protect a functional object.  We have seen many people share their functional 3D files with a Creative Commons license in a number of places online,  although this is not legally binding, it does offer a social construct that should be respected, a way to communicate the way in which you would like to share, and a possible framework for the future.

Take the time to read the paper, it is an incredibly useful resource for all of us navigating through unchartered waters. 

The paper is shared under a Creative Commons license, of course... Great work by Michael Weinberg and his team. 

In my youth, when I was backpacking around the world I spent a few months in Seattle but I never got to see the peak of the Mt. Rainier until the day that I flew out of Tacoma airport, and there above the clouds was the peak of the mountain.  It is an image burnt into my memory, of a time in my life of freedom and wonder.

Of course as time passes, memory fades and one forgets or exaggerates the past, so it is always nice to have a little something to hold the memory fast in one's mind.  A postcard may act as a trigger, but it is so one dimensional, and could never capture 'that view'.  Now TinyMtn comes to the rescue with, tiny 3D printed mountains.  Now I can have Mt. Ranier 3D printed on my desktop, and when I want to reminisce, I can drop some dry ice in a glass of water for an impromptu cloud, pull out my iPhone with an Olloclip attachment and fly it around the mountain, peering into the screen just like I peered out of the window in awe of the mountain peak, so many years ago. Thank you TinyMtn...

Alan Hudson, Shapeways Director of 3D Tools, has been working on a tool to make it easy to create 3D objects from 2D images. Think of it as the next generation of our 2D to 3D. We've gotten the software far enough along that we're ready to show off to a larger group. After your feedback we'll fix it up and then release it as open source software.

If you've got an interest in 3D printing and can wrangle a 2D image then we've got something for you to try!

On January 15th at 7pm at Office Nomads in Seattle we'll be letting you play with the software, have some drinks and discuss 3D printing.

If you'd like to run the software during the session then please bring a laptop and some image software. We've been working with Illustrator, Photoshop, Inkscape and Gimp so far. The software takes in JPEG or PNG images. A good resolution to use 300 DPI images.

RSVP via Meetup to enter the third dimension!

It's Friday, your mind is on the weekend instead of the work at hand, a hot cup of coffee from a 3D printed Curios Cat Mug for that extra feline hit of catfeine... 

Often the most meaningful gifts are the ones that you make yourself for the one you love.  Buying a bunch of roses and a teddy bear from the gas station on the way home on Valentine's Day although efficient, is not exactly romantic.  Shapeways community member jrey made a beautiful gift for his wife for their second wedding anniversary.

Jrey's wife is from the Bahamas so he designed a sea shell ring and set of earrings to remind her of home and had them 3D printed in Sterling Silver by Shapeways.  The jewelry looks beautiful and she absolutely loved them.  Now this is the only jewelry of it's kind in the entire world, made especially for one woman designed for her alone by her husband.  This is the kind of gift that will be passed on for generations, with the grandmother telling the granddaughter the story of it's creation, and the depth of meaning that far exceeds any item bought off of the shelf. 

If you are like me, with impeccable (cough) taste and want to share your refined aesthetic and eye for the coolest designs, be sure to add them to your favorites.  We will start using your favorites to curate the homepage on Shapeways and we will also feature your selection on the Shapeways blog.  You can include your own designs in your favorites but if yours are chosen, we will only feature one of your items along side other designs that you love.

To add an item to your favorites is easy, simply hit the heart to the side of an item on it's product page. 

If you think you have an awesome selection already in your favorites, comment on the blog with you Shapeways user name.  If you do not have any favorites yet, why not browse through the Shapeways site, favorite a few that you like and enter your user name here too.  We could be featuring your favorites next... 

Another family 3D printing project to hit Shapeways is the Controller Pendant by stop4stuff. Not only is it a story of a father and son, working together on a creative project, but also a story entrepreneurial spirit.  If the design sells, the boy get's his pocket money without doing any additional work, but most importantly, the boy get's his pocket money without it coming out of his father's pocket.... Win, win.

Some time last year (2012) my 13 year old son, Nath, was trying to think up ways to make a bit of extra pocket money. Knowing Nath's artistic flair, I suggested a design of something he could have 3D printed. Nath drew up the design on paper, I did the 3D model work and between us we came up with the style of the pendant based on an Xbox games console controller.

Ordered on the 15th December, the pendant arrived on the 2nd January, in plenty of time for his birthday next week.

This is Nath's first design and any markups from this model all go to Nath.

So, if you want an awesome pendant for yourself or your gamer friend, go for the Controller Pendant and support teenage entrepreneurship. Happy Birthday Nath...

VertigoPolka has designed a giant 7 foot long 3D printed necklace of 185 interconnected Octahedrons.  The super cool image may catch your eye but the price will blow your mind.  But if 7 feet of 3D printed awesomeness is too much for you there is also the original 36 Inch Octahedralink Necklace and the mid length 55 Inch version.  Or get all three and strut your stuff with 175 inches (4.45 metres) of 3D printed jewelry around your neck.

Shapeways community member and design for 3D printing specialist Cunicode has just launched Crayon Creatures, a simple way to take your child's drawing to 3D print thanks to Shapeways 3D printing, because sticking your child's drawing to the fridge is so 2011.

With Crayon Creatures all you need to do is scan or photograph your child's drawing and upload it to be converted into a 3D form, 3D printed and sent to your door.  Each drawing is 3d modeled based exactly on the drawing, not wrapped around a default form so every 3D printed figure is as unique as your child's drawing. 

You can see a few of the Crayon Creatures already created in Cunicode's Shapeways shop.

We are seeing more and more applications on Shapeways that make it easy to 3D print without learning how to 3D model. At the same time as we see complex 3D modeling and scanning tools become cheaper and easier to use, we are also seeing these applications and services that allow anyone can make what they want with 3D printing, lowering the barrier to entry.  

If there was a perfect tool to make 3D printing easier, what do you think it should be?

Take a look at some of these 3D printed products, fresh for 2013 from the Shapeways community.  We are looking forward to seeing what 2013 brings, new designs, new materials, new colors, new resolutions....

Honey Comb iPad Mini Case

Design by Gromfrog

MacBook Pro Grip

ModiRaptor Dino Kit

Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen was interviewed by the team at All Things Considered on National Public Radio that will air tonight on WNYC on FM 93.9.  Tune in today at 4pm and/or 7pm to hear the interview live or you can head to the NPR site at a later date and listen to the archive to hear why 3D Printing Is (Kind OF) A Big Deal..

We are seeing more and more requests in the Shapeways forums joining the rising number of requests we receive at Shapeways HQ from people looking for 3D modelers to help them 3D print their ideas.  Sometimes they have an idea, sometimes they have a napkin sketch, sometimes they have a SketchUp model in the wrong scale that needs a lot of love, sometime they just need advice.

If you have 3D modeling skills and you would like to help others realize their ideas with 3D printing, take a look at the 3D modeler needed forum and maybe you can work out a deal that benefits you both. You can also showcase your skills in the 3D modeler for hire section of the Shapeways forums, being sure to include links to your Shapeways products and any other portfolio you may have on sites like Coroflot or Behance Network.

We are also getting more and more requests from fashion designers, artists, advertising agencies, animators, prop makers, jewelers and regular human beings that need to find someone to help them 3D model their concepts ready for 3D printing.

If you are interested in us passing on your details, please post your username and a link to your Shapeways shop in the comments of this blog post. 

We will keep an eye on the post and keep you in mind when the next request comes in. 

In many places it is already 2013, but as the hour draws near to Shapeways HQ in New York City, we would like to know, what should be our new year 3D printing resolution? How many microns in what material???

Image via Paperbits on Flickr