What I find interesting is how 3D printing its self plays into this and other situations like this. The digital aspect of it that is. You see, Paul is not selling anything tangible. He doesn't even know whom is the customers are or even if anything has even sold unless Shapeways tells him about it. What he
IS selling is a set of non-tangible instructions that tells a machine at Shapeways what to do.
Here's an analogy. I walk into a machine shop and verbally tell a machinist how to make a certain item. They then make the actual tangible item using my verbal instructions with the agreement that if they sell the item that they have to give me a portion of the sale. So they then sell the item and they disburse to me my share as agreed.
So then, here comes a copyright holder waving a C&D order! Who'd is liable? Certainly not MEEEE!!! HAHAHA!! :laughing: All I did was tell the machinist what to do!
So the machinist exclaims, "HEY NOW! DON'T LOOK AT ME!" I'VE GOT INSTRUCTIONS COMING IN FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ITEMS PER YEAR HERE!" HAHAHA!!! :laughing: "Oh yeah and, [whispering] that's why there's the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. CHA CHINGGG!!!" hehehe
And so the copyright holder is standing there with a blank stare.
By the way great work Paul, I can appreciate the expenditure of effort that when into the creation of everything you have up. The way I see it, nobody cares about copyright infringement unless you're making enough money to make it worth their effort to tell you to stop. It's sort of like how farmers don't care much about people helping themselves to the outer fringes of a crop. It's just when some pulls up driving a harvesting machine that they tend to take notice. So to get a C&D is like a compliment in a way, cuz it shows that you're doing too well at what you've set out to do.