It then applies this regime to the world of 3D printing, describes the political economy of 3D printing technology, and discusses specific regulatory challenges brought about by the digitization of physical goods. After identifying novel legal issues, the Article builds on a rich literature set of regulatory and compliance literature to construct an integrated regulatory regime to govern 3D printing. The Article separates truly novel legal issues raised by 3D printing from issues for which the current regulatory regime is well designed. This Article represents the first broad descriptive and normative study of this technology and its multivalent effects on law. The technology portends dramatic shifts in manufacturing, trade, medicine, and more, and will require a legal regime that integrates the legal concepts governing the digital and physical worlds. Posting a computer CAD file of an object (an illegal gun or an infringing shoe) to the internet essentially makes the physical object available to the world. Three-dimensional printing is invading society, bringing with it the ability to “print” objects (atoms) from computer files (bits). This Article analyzes that phenomenon and discusses potential ways the law may react to it. This ancillary material serves as a lock-out code, which tries to prevent what would otherwise be lawful copying. If digital manufacturing files of purely utilitarian objects do not enjoy copyright protection, creators may seek to embed additional, ancillary copyrightable material in the files to secure protection. The lack of copyright protection for these files calls into question a number of assumptions, including whether they can be protected against even verbatim copying and whether open-source licenses involving these files can efficaciously bind downstream users. On the other hand, and contrary to several assertions in the literature, most files created to manufacture purely utilitarian objects are not copyrightable because they lack a modicum of creativity. The analysis briefly confirms that digital files created to manufacture creative objects are themselves clearly protected by copyright. This Article incorporates an advanced technical understanding of digital manufacturing files and applies that understanding to copyright doctrine to clarify misunderstandings. This Article corrects several errors that have appeared in the literature analyzing copyright law’s treatment of 3D printing and other digital manufacturing files. To understand whether and how the copyright system should apply in an increasingly digital world, it is first necessary to understand doctrinally how current copyright laws apply to new digital works. Digitization brings increasingly more aspects of our world into the potential ambit of the copyright system. As the distinction between the digital and physical worlds continues to diminish, the necessity to reevaluate the bargain struck by the copyright regime increases in importance.
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