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?

Asteroid Mining May Be Against the Law?

Well we may just have jumped the gun on this story. As you recall I wrote about a venture capitol group, consisting of people like James Cameron, wanted to start a company to mine near Earth asteroids for their resources. Now according to BY George Dvorsky writing for the IO9 blog -space law expert Frans von der Dunk warned that current space law is seriously out of date and such ventures may turn out to be illegal! The question of who owns the asteroid and what rights do the miners have should someone consider taking any particular mine as their own. Without clear cut laws, this scenario could be a very real possibility.

From the IO9 Article:

• The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which forms the basis of international space law and to which all space-faring nations are a party. The treaty says that outer space constitutes a "global commons." This means that extraterrestrial bodies can never be part of one country such as the United States

The complete IO9 article can be read here

Image via Gunnar Assmy/Shutterstock

Judge Rules Genes Can't Be Patented

IO9 reports that a judge recently ruled against the pharmaceutical industry stating that a company could not patent a human gene just because they discovered it.

From the article:

• The ruling grew out of a suit brought by the ACLU and Public Patent Foundation against Myriad Genetics, Inc., which had a patent on a gene which can lead to breast cancer.
• The ruling that could invalidate patents held on almost 20 percent of the human genome. There is a long-simmering debate within the biotech and scientific communities over whether it makes sense to patent genes. At this point, most scientists agree that patents on genes retard scientific innovation.
  

complete IO9 article

Is forced vaccination Bio-Terrorism?

Consider this truly paranoid news article title: Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder

This very controversial article was sent in by Shaun Saunders and is eerily similar to his story "The Colors Twelve" that I read in episode 154. The very very dark tale describes a meeting of a shadowy organization that steers groups like WHO in an effort to create a very bleak world brought about by selective breeding and massive genocide using such techniques as vaccines that have been tailored or adulterated to cause massive fatalities. Now mind you, this story of Shaun's appeared before Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology produced contaminated bird flu vaccine!

Jane Burgermeister, an Austrian investigative journalist, has taken the very unusual step

• [she] has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder.
• She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination......
• In her charges, Burgermeister presents evidence of acts of bioterrorism that is in violation of U.S. law by a group operating within the U.S. under the direction of international bankers who control the Federal Reserve, as well as WHO, UN and NATO. This bioterrorism is for the purpose of carrying out a mass genocide against the U.S. population by use of a genetically engineered flu pandemic virus with the intent of causing death.

Wether or not you follow this line of reasoning, the article itself is an interesting insight into many ideas and of course you can not resist speculating about what kind of future might come about if something like this really took place.

And always there is Shaun just hours into the future with stories like "The Colors Twelve". That in my mind is where true Science Fiction lives

Read complete article in Natural News

Should virtual crime mean real jail time?

I was reading this article in Scientific American that was titled: "Avatar Acts: Why Online Realities Need Regulation" Now before we start choosing up battle lines and boiling the oil, some facts. It's estimated that worldwide, some 100 million people have an online avatar that they use to populate virtual worlds like Second Life of World of Warcraft. These virtual worlds allow a user a real-time experience to say - wander around castles, deserted islands, battlefields either historical or totally fantastic. Through the use of "avatars", a user can meet, talk or in some instances, if you are so inclined, have simulated sex.

Such immersive activities can lead to real world problems - and not just the escape from reality. Take for instance a wife who filed papers for divorce on the grounds that she caught her husband being overly affectionate with someone else. Now before you say that is perfectly acceptable to sue for divorce consider: The woman found her husband's avatar having a relationship with another woman's avatar. The husband counters that he was driven to it by his wife's addiction to World of Warcraft. Mind you neither have had physical relations with anyone in reality.

Not real enough...try this then. One man lent a friend a sword that he had spent a great deal of money on and in fact was worth a great deal more. His friend promptly sold the sword. Now I should tell you that said sword was a item that can be purchased in the virtual world of warcraft and his friend sold the virtual weapon to another avatar, so you can say that nothing was really stolen and sold. However this is where it gets weird. The original owner decided to sue but found that there were no laws pertaining to purloining a virtual item so he was out of luck. In retaliation the owner of the sword went and killed the friend who sold it. So a man is dead and another will spend the rest of his life in prison. Over a virtual item.

Even stranger still:

• A Brussels public prosecutor who had called for an investigation of a rape charge involving a Belgian user of Second Life.

The investigation died because all laws on the books pertaining to violent acts, deal with real people. Not that nothing is being done. South Korean courts now have several laws on the book pertaining to virtual property, but the U.S. has chosen not to act. Something is going to have to happen, as far as legislation is concerned. Virtual commerce is worth about $1 billion, and that is not virtual cash either.

Read complete article here


**update**
According to AOL News:

• A Tennessee man is facing charges of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor for what authorities say are three pictures -- none of them featuring an actual child's body. Instead, the photos feature the faces of three young girls placed on the nude bodies of adult females........

Pornography it might be - but sexual exploitation? Questionable material most certainly but how can it be exploitation of a minor? What am I missing?

Satellite Abandoned Thanks To Patent On Lunar Flybys

From Techdirt.com and the WTF! or you gota be kiddin me department come one of the most ridiculous things I think I have ever head of pertaining to the space program.... It reads like this.

Satellite company SES Americom has to abandon a satellite that had a botched launch due to a ridiculous patent on the concept of a lunar flyby. Basically, what happened is that SES had a problem with a satellite launch, such that the satellite did not reach the proper orbit (it was intended to be a geostationary satellite used by Echostar). SES then figured out that it could get the satellite into a proper orbit by making use of a lunar flyby. That part is just basic physics. But, at that point, SES discovered that Boeing happens to own a patent on doing this sort of lunar flyby, despite the fact that you can't patent physics.

Ever heard the saying "If you can't dazzle em with brilliance....baffle em with BS!"? That seems to be the case. Boeing merely used some jargon to make basic physics appear as a "process." and some numknow at the patent office gives it a rubber stamp and an okeeeedoughkeeeeeeee! Either that or there is some governmental colusion going on here, because that is the stupidest thing I ever heard. Come on! You're telling me that anytime NASA is going to put a spacecraft near the moon they have to pay a licencing fee to Boeing? B.S.!

Boeing BS patent can be found HERE

Complete story here

The 3 Laws of Robotics according to Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis's gives us a profane and angry take on the Three Laws of Robotics. For those of you scratching your heads now saying...ummm laws? what laws? Let me enlighten you. Science Fiction author Isaac Asimov is credited with being the first to pen rules for robot behavior. His three laws were basic and simple, they are for the most part 1) a robot must obey a human 2) a robot must never harm a human or through inaction allow a human to come to harm 3) a robot must preserve itself at all cost unless it violates either first or second law. I have simplified them a bit.

Now, as high minded as this all is. Many love to have a go at these "laws" Warren, on his blog, gives us a very funny rant which is so profane, that I really can not quote here. But for a good laugh I suggest that you take a trip over and have a read.

Never fear either, Isaac would get just as bit a laugh as you will.

3 laws rant

Genetic discrimination ban edges closer to reality

By a fairly wide 420-3 margin, the House of Representatives gave a nearly unanimous thumbs-up to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which would "prohibit employers from using genetic information or test results when making employment and health benefits decisions" if it gets a similar nod of approval from the Senate. if the bill becomes law, health insurers couldn't use "genetic information to set premiums," nor could they require customers to submit genetic tests. Essentially, this could ensure that any future human mutation hacks you inflict on yourself, or more frightening, any robotic humanoid whose genes would find it out, will be safe from scrutiny come interview time.

Robotic age poses ethical dilemma

An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007. It is being put together by a five member team of experts that includes futurists and a science fiction writer. The new charter is an attempt to set ground rules for this future. Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were their wives, or others may get addicted to interacting with them just as many internet users get hooked to the cyberworld.

The new guidelines could reflect the three laws of robotics put forward by author Isaac Asimov in his short story Runaround in 1942, she said. Key considerations would include ensuring human control over robots, protecting data acquired by robots and preventing illegal use.

ASIMOV'S LAWS OF ROBOTICS

1 A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2 A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3 A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

An Act To Require Alien Big Game Hunters To Be Accompanied by a Guide

Now you know, I just had to put this here, because well, it's so damn funny! Just from the reaction I had first, when Ron Huber sent it to me! Of course I know what they mean but it has always struck me funny that Maine, and possibly many other areas persist in calling non residents "aliens"
So what the story Ron sent me really informs us about is a new piece of legislation that would require any non Maine resident to be accompanied by a licenced Maine Guide.

I don't have an opinion one way or another on the subject, but I just think its wild that there is now a statute on the books now with the words Alien and Big Game Hunter in the title. lol Arnold should hear about this one huh?

Maine Legislature Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Tuesday February 13, 2007 1:00 PM Room 206, Cross State Office Building

L.D. 98 An Act To Require Alien Big Game Hunters To Be Accompanied by a Guide (Sponsor: Rep. THERIAULT of Madawaska)
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280022414

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 12 MRSA §11224 is enacted to read:
An alien is guilty of hunting big game without a guide if that alien hunts big game without being accompanied on the hunt by a person who holds a valid guide license pursuant to chapter 927 authorizing that person to act as a hunting guide.