Making, Piracy, Profit:Sharing 3D Printing files as

disruptive communication practiceComm & Tech: 3D Printing as Communicative Practice: Emergent Affordances, Collaborative Relationships, and Social Implications

Luke Heemsbergen | University of Melbourne | @ParrotLukeMNSIFunding Declarations:

/

• Intro: 3D P2P Pirate Comms.

Making Pirates

• Frame: Johns née Hayek

Market Comms.

• Data: “Complex & Contradictory”

Sharing / SNA / But FG though…

• Discussion:

MakingPiracyProfit

 "[you said]  if your washing machine broke you, you couldn’t see someone then, um, like get printing a part for it. But that’s like using contemporary understanding of how a washing machine is put together and manufactured; what if they completely changed how they manufactured washing machines to correspond with this need for everyone in their home to have a 3D printer to that."

Outline

Plunderbuss Pete by bendansie c/o Thingiverse

MakingPiracyProfit

 "[you said]  if your washing machine broke you, you couldn’t see someone then, um, like get printing a part for it. But that’s like using contemporary understanding of how a washing machine is put together and manufactured; what if they completely changed how they manufactured washing machines to correspond with this need for everyone in their home to have a 3D printer to that."

3D Printing as Pirate Comms.

Plunderbuss Pete by bendansie c/o Thingiverse

P2P Pirate Comms.• Tied to Open Culture

• Pirate parties share culture now (Jååsaari and Hildem 2015)

• Social learning and decolonisation (Burkat 2014)

• Call it file sharing for cooperative formation and positive engagement (John 2014)

• But Open or Free?

• Bazaars or Communes, PPL or GPL, etc. (Tkcaz 2012/2014)

• Opposite of open ‘is not closed but “proprietary”’ (Kelty 2008)

• or…Transcendence (Bauwens) or Venture Communism (Kleiner)

MakingPiracyProfit

Johns née Hayek• ‘“[pirates] played a pivotal role in the development of a

new politics of communication and public culture…that the state and existing institutions always regarded as immoral.” - Johns 2008

• “Hostility to commercial ‘piracy’ is neither new or unfamiliar: it is a reflex reaction by established interests to unwelcome and adventurous competition. In business, energetic newcomers disturb accepted patterns and precepts…to break [these] rules is not only professional bad form but also ‘Against the Public Interest’” - Thomas, D. (1965) Competition in Radio. London: IEA.

MakingPiracyProfit

Johns née Hayek• Johns (2009): Books, Buttons, Sheet Music

• Institute of Economic Affairs’ “Piracy as a Business Force” based on Hayek’s moral & epistemological need for decentralisation

• Planning, and monopolisation of information by x restricts what/how can be known n

• Pirate 3D Printing fulfils these needs

MakingPiracyProfit

“Complex & Contradictory” EvidenceMakingPiracyProfit

• Pirate 3D (2013)

• Digismith (2014): people like sharing. People don’t like economics of sharing

• SNA (2015): Yes. And.

• Focus Groups (2015): Couldn’t escape economic regimes

MakingPiracyProfit

“Complex & Contradictory” Evidence“We are designing a peer-to-peer network for the sharing, modification and slicing of 3d objects. The main file format that would be shared is the smart-object. The idea is to never centralise the storage of 3d objects in any single server, nor privately owned cluster; as that could mean that files could be forcibly removed by malicious parties, or that the network could be taken down through a DDOS attack.”

Pirate 3D 2012

At present we are planning the Cloud Storage Architecture in 2 layers. Free and Donation-Based Smart Objects will be stored and cached on every node in the Cloud. Authors who wish their objects to be Paid for before printing, will have their Smart Objects stored only within the Pirate3D Cluster - this is to protect their wishes.

MakingPiracyProfit

“Complex & Contradictory” Evidence

Ford

yce,

Hee

msb

erge

n, e

t al.

2016

“Complex & Contradictory” EvidenceMakingPiracyProfit

• Pirate 3D (2013)

• Digismith (2014): people like sharing. People don’t like economics of sharing

• SNA (2015): Yes. And.

• Focus Groups (2015): Couldn’t escape economic regimes

Concluding ThoughtsMakingPiracyProfit