[billybob]

"Say you you could make infinite cheap copies of a car or a TV, would anyone make a better one?"

There's a flip side: if you could make infinite cheap copies of industrial robots, how many more people would start making cars?

Creative output becomes input for other creative output. Rachmaninoff wrote "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" because nothing prevented him from re-using Paganini's work. Today copyright would prevent that.

IP laws are meant to help incentivize production of new stuff. But they also raise a barrier that keeps people from using old stuff to make new stuff. We have to balance those two things.

[sudont]

I disagree based on the lack of my generation's (millennial) John Waters. Or Maya Deren.

John Water's ideal was to flip an idea into a movie in an afternoon. With the prevelance of RED, iPhones, Canon 5Ds, and a few hundred metric tons of mid-2000's mini DV cameras, this has not happened. We're instead moving into a post-commercial era, where we're doing 30 second youtube spots, and watching full-budget long-form.

Infinite manufacturing will result in a neighborhood Shapeways or Kickstarter, not a neighborhood Ford.

[r0s]

> this has not happened.

Would you know if it did?

Waters himself wasn't really appreciated for a decade or so. Movies with zero marketing budget don't get recognized immediately.

[waterlesscloud]

I very strongly believe that it has happened. Actually, I know that it has.

There are people out there using the technology to make very good films on very low budgets.

The problem isn't getting the films made, and it's not distributing them. It's in connecting the viewers to the films. "Marketing" in the past has been the way that's been done. But we need something else now, a new method of film discovery.

Good stuff is going completely unseen, and that's a real shame.

[Vivtek]

Infinite manufacturing will result in a neighborhood Shapeways or Kickstarter, not a neighborhood Ford.

I fail to see why that's a bad thing.

[true_religion]

Actually looking at the software market, infinite manufacturing would result in a small few creating a neighborhood Ferrari because it suits their admittedly niche interests.

[sudont]

I didn't say it was bad! It's just more trivial than a car.

Née "Some Assembly Required."

[Vivtek]

Ah! Point taken. Although I've been giving some thought to local automobile production, actually - Richmond (IN) used to make cars and I think we should again. The only problem is it's damned hard to get one certified nowadays.