Doctorow's "Print Crime" & 3D printing. Could it Happen?

Back in 07 I asked Cory Doctorow if I could read his warning tale called "Print Crime". The gist of the story was that 3d printers had proliferated to the point that everyone had one or had printed up parts to have one. Owning a 3d was not a crime, however the insidious part of the story was that with copyrights and various other controls on digital output, it had become a serious crime to print most items. Certainly a chilling warning.

Now of course you see all forms of printing project available for these devices. Plus the fact that the technology is being accepted whole hog. Except for an article I just read an article that I first saw on Kim Kommando's site and followed the link. Here we have a company that wants to reinvigorate the nation's manufacturing by bringing designs back to the US and printing them instead of tooling up and making these products in a factory.

The military and the Obama administration have championed this initiative and even asked congress for funds to help put a framework together that would promote battlefield replacement parts, parts no longer available and to "boost competitiveness throughout America". But will it? If the present shows us anything is that once a product is found viable, every action to protect a monopoly is brought to the front. Granted the green and the do it yourself ideology is gaining ground but I am willing to speculate that they will be no more than a footnote. Which is really to bad, when you have products that don't warrant large outlays and fit best into small manufacturing frameworks, but are not utilized because of whatever patent or what have you is rigorously enforced.

Doctorow's tale took this idea and extrapolated it to the extreme where certain jail time and possibly worse was in store for those that would foolishly print parts as though it were their only way to keep some of the tech running or what have you.

Anyway, it is worth consideration.
Read the article by clicking the title then formulating a reply here if interested. Am I wrong to think Doctorow may have hit the nail on the head and not everything is coming up roses for those that are firmly behind the 3d printing tech?