UK & EU Shut Out 3D Printing Community … It's amazing what an eruption Brexit had in the headlines, only to be superseded by worse things in the news shortly after … What an interesting law they have chosen to pass. -3DPrint

The disease of government is like an ineradicable plague that sickens without ceasing. Now patent and copyright law have been extending in the UK and EU.

Why should we pay to provide you the privilege of exclusivity? Especially when we are well aware that only a relative few benefit substantially from intellectual property rights.

Musicians don't benefit from these laws for the most part, though the record companies do. Authors don't benefit from these laws for the most part, thought their publishers do.

As for inventors generally, would they really cease to tinker if they couldn't patent their inventions? And don't certain businesses routinely copy inventions with minor changes that circumvent patents and allow for duplication anyway?

The late, departed musician known as Prince was obsessed with "ownership" of his music. Ironic¡ally, many of his productions disappeared into a vault and have yet to be publicly presented. Turns out in his later years, he earned a good deal of income from public performances..

It is no coincidence that copyright began after the advent of the Gutenberg Press.  As Wikipedia informs us, "The origin of copyright law in most European countries lies in efforts by the church and governments to regulate and control the output of printers."

It never had much to do with enforcing YOUR property rights so much as ensuring that princes and churchmen were  not overly inconvenienced by new ideas that might threaten their power, control and wealth.

Britain had strong copyright, Germany weaker, post-Gutenberg.  German intellectual vitality was apparently aided by the  free flow of information, HERE.

In fact, it can even be argued that German advances were perceived as threatening by London's banking "City," which  helped launch two world wars to reduce a German Power that in part was product of laissez-faire.

More from 3D Print:

Now, following the EU, [the UK has] modified a copyright-and-patent monopoly law so that it extends its reach to the realm of furniture as well, including this traditional design industry within the law. And not only that—this is meant to hold for a century! A major impact to be considered here is that it directly affects makers in the UK, who will not be able to employ 3D printing in the manufacturing of some items. And right-o, not for a hundred years, at least.

This moves furniture out of the design patent arena and into the jurisdiction of copyright law, allowing for the lifetime of this decree on a particular design to last 25 years retroactively from the inception of its marketing to 70 years after the death of the creator. This is a pretty extreme way to kick out knock-off designers, but more so—it truly shuts out the creative maker community, not exactly known for creating sweatshops and employing the downtrodden to mass produce shoddy imitations.