 Welcome to Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE TV. For Monday, October 8th, 2012, I'm Kristen Folletti. DIY projects have gone to a whole new level with 3D printing, where you can print actual objects from your very own printer. While this is exciting for the general consumer, companies that could potentially be out of business are not so enthusiastic. What are the downsides of this fun and innovative at-home manufacturing plant? Here now to give us her breaking analysis is SiliconANGLE Newsdesk editor, Kristen Nicole. Welcome, Kristen. Good morning. The 3D printing industry is really starting to take off. This is some new technology that's all about innovation. What are your thoughts? I think it's really exciting stuff. Even my boyfriend has been playing around with some of this stuff. He's building an Ironman costume right now, and it's been amazing to watch. It's like a sculpture coming together. I'm really excited about where this industry is going and the potential behind it. Tell us more about the types of things that you can print from a 3D printer. Just about anything the heart can imagine. I know some things that are really popular are certain toys, things like iPhone cases, artwork of different sorts. I had a friend that made a clock with a 3D printer one time. There are talks that 3D printing could be used to do harm rather than good, like manufacturing weapons at home. What kind of dangers are there in making this technology available to the masses? I think there's a notable amount of danger and concern going on here. Of course, no one can really stop anyone from making a weapon or something that can be used for harm. When there's processes and machines that really simplify the process and make it as easy as pushing a button and really lowering the skillset required to manufacture certain things, there's certainly room for concern. Printing a gun is a really scary thought. Now we talk about these types of printers being available to the masses. Can you talk about how affordable they are? They're certainly getting more and more affordable, just like most things that kind of see their lifespan get older and the processes around building these machines get cheaper and more simplified. I believe there's even a 3D printer that can replicate itself and build another 3D printer. It's definitely reaching consumer level accessibility, I think, on the lower price range and you can get a 3D printer for maybe $1,000, maybe a little cheaper depending on the type of machine that you need. Currently, are 3D printers only available to print using one type of material or are there printers available that can handle multiple materials as well? When it comes to the types of 3D printers that we're looking at for regular consumer access, it's likely that the earliest models, the most affordable models are going to focus on one material or another and a lot of that is going to have to do with plastics. Of course, you can just buy bags of plastic beads and melt them down and have this printer create 3D objects. So that in the early stages will limit the types of objects that can be created with a 3D printer and maybe even help curb or address some of those issues and concerns around building things like weapons. Speaking of issues, there's a lot of legal matters surrounding this concept, mainly copyright and patent related. Do you feel patent and trademark laws will create too many limitations on 3D printing and possibly hinder innovation in that aspect? I'm hoping it doesn't hinder innovation. Of course, there's going to be so many ideas and things to come out of a trend like this. I think that innovation will definitely be there. I think it will be encouraged with things like 3D printing as far as the legal side of things go. I'm sure things can get ugly. Of course, the companies that already manufacture things and selling them in retail stores may have some issues with the possibility of a consumer just printing a product for themselves instead of going out to the store or even going online to make that type of a purchase. So it's going to be really, really debatable how the whole patent thing plays out when it comes to things like 3D printing. So do you see lawmakers attempting to create new laws that will primarily be designed for 3D printing? I certainly wouldn't be surprised. You already had certain issues, the Ironman costume that my boyfriend's building, for example. It's unlikely that he'd be able to use this end product for certain activities or be able to resell it because, of course, it's not a Marvel approved product. So things like that are going to come into question depending on how you want to use the product. And of course, if somebody wants to sell a plan that can be used for a 3D printer, how that plan has been devised, how it works with the machine, how the machine itself actually prints out that product. These are all going to be things that come into play when when the legalities of 3D printing are concerned. So is this turning into the same war that DRM digital rights management had with ripping movies and music downloads only on this instance with CAD files? It very well could be. We saw a lot of this play out when it came to the piracy that happened in the music industry in Hollywood. And they were both gravely affected by some of the things that happened when consumers had more power in their own hands. And it's really going to be a matter of what type of regulation comes into play, how this industry can self regulate itself and how agree that they're going to be when it comes to how they approach the consumer. Now that the retail middleman is starting to be removed from the picture, as well as how they want to be competitive when it comes to the the software and the designs that are going to be basically the products for the consumer are going to start being the software and designs versus the actual product itself. And there are industries like the fashion industry, recipes, comedy. These can be copyrighted. So there's lots of lessons to be learned here as to how an industry can develop with or without the extra legalities of copyright issues. The way tech companies like Apple, for instance, use patents to can really provide a cautionary tale for startups and big businesses alike. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Yeah, the Apple story in particular, you know, they're very adamant about getting those patents pulled together. And even companies like Microsoft that have patents for a certain amount of time and have to basically offer those up to rivals with fair pricing and licensing options. This this is certainly a cautionary tale to see how smaller companies are going to have to look at larger companies, how they're going to be able to compete with each other, as well as these larger companies. There's instances where something innovative was either swallowed up or kind of just destroyed through the legal process. And that can very much hinder hinder innovation. These 3D printers, are we seeing them mostly as a show piece right now at tech shows, for instance, or are they being used in manufacturing sites? Or is it something that is widely available to consumers at this moment? It's becoming widely available to consumers. You'll certainly see them at trade shows, tech shows, DIY shows. And then there's some companies that are emerging around the 3D printer trend. I believe there's a company in in Brooklyn that will create certain products for you, semi customizable based on whatever 3D printers they have available. And I know in other areas, especially when I took a trip to Tokyo, 3D printers years ago had already been a lot more have become a lot more proliferant than they are in the States. So there's some international trends going on, depending on the types of products that are being created and for what purpose, but it's certainly starting to reach a consumer appeal and access. So similar to how consumers have sort of opened up their own eBay and Amazon stores where they'll sell things online, do you see that sort of possibility for 3D printers where if someone doesn't want to purchase their own 3D printer, perhaps they pay someone to create something for them using a 3D printer? Yes, I could certainly turn into a service based model such as that. And it could fit very well alongside consumers being able to have their own 3D printers at home or more specialized companies that have advanced 3D printers that can make more involved in more detailed products. So certainly I expect to see some tiering going on and some very specialized instruments coming out in the next few years. Do you know of any companies in particular that have spoke out about their opposition to 3D printing because it threatens their manufacturing? I don't know of any specific companies, but I can imagine that there will be some manufacturers out there that can either jump on this wave, get ahead and look to the digital world to sort of supplement similar to how the publishing industry and some others have had to do. Whereas others are going to be a lot more concerned as far as patents go and how this will affect their business long term. Well, thanks so much for joining us, Kristen. Very exciting stuff. Absolutely. Take care. 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