News Prusa CEO declares that 'open hardware desktop 3D printing' is dead — cites rise of China's government subsidies, country's permissive patent system

[Admin]

3D printer companies are raiding the Open Source cookie jar, and it’s starting to hurt.

Prusa CEO declares that 'open hardware desktop 3D printing' is dead — cites rise of China's government subsidies, country's permissive patent system : Read more

 

[ezst036]

It doesn't entirely sound like things are matching up here.

The issue seems to be centered around labor costs. Open source was really good at fighting against high-dollar 3d printing machines where all the engineers were making 100k or hundreds per year salary at their mega corporations.

But now, the question has become "Is open source incapable of fighting against slave labor?" That makes open source the more expensive option. It seems that we do have the answer.

 

[chaz_music]

Copying others' ideas is not just a human characteristic, as it is seen in nature as a survival technique. So it should not be a surprise in human technology, just a surprise that society does not push for fairness.

Most patent systems have issues, but the Chinese system allowing patents without any reasonable reviewing of prior art is going to ruin their innovation. That will result in a quagmire where only the original prolific patent filers can play in each market.

Note though that our US system is horrible, too. I have given court opinions on patents that should never had been awarded. Some with prior art going back decades, reviewed by lawyers who only have a few years experience out of college and filed by engineers who did not do any reasonable prior art search or just did not know about previous technology. Plus, the US patent database is allowing patents to be filed in topics that are not properly related, or even worse, not using proper industry terms. An example is a company that filed a solar control that was a twist on MPPT - but never using the term MPPT in the entire patent. So they have a stealth patent that trolls would love to buy. Another company filed a US patent that was an article in a magazine and it was granted.

In relation to this article: Human innovation is getting to a tipping point that needs some sort of global fairness laws and a global patent rethink. And books as well. Already, authors are refusing to create more books, because they get copied online and then scraped by AI without any financial return for the authors. Some books culminate decades of research. And even in my own fields of expertise, I have knowledge that appears to be unique and unknown to my peers and I use that when I do my consulting. But that knowledge won't get passed along due to no value returned for the incredible effort to develop that knowledge (some took years of simulation work). I would expect the same is happening here with the 3D printing technology.

 

[baboma]

>In relation to this article: Human innovation is getting to a tipping point that needs some sort of global fairness laws and a global patent rethink.

Not to be facetious, but that would come right after the global framework to combat climate change, and somewhere before world peace. IOW, never--or at least, beyond my lifetime and yours. "Fairness" is an oft-abused word for "I want bigger share."

>Already, authors are refusing to create more books, because they get copied online and then scraped by AI without any financial return for the authors. Some books culminate decades of research.

Be that as it may, if authors refuse to create more books, they are no longer authors, and alternative career choices are likely less palatable. While financial compensation is an important factor, it's not an overriding factor in one's career choices. The desire to express one's knowledge to the public, if not to share, then for validation, IMO trumps the money factor.

Authors and creatives will continue to publish, and navigate the hazards as best as they can.

 

[edzieba]

Funny how open source 3d printing only 'died' when Prusa gave up open sourcing their printer, but Marlin and Klipr development (also open source, and which Prusa relies on*) continues unabated.
Sounds more like open source printing will continue unabated, but it's just Prusa that's approaching the chopping block and panicking. Sour grapes that high-volume printer manufacturers are now just ignoring Prusa and aiming to replicate Bambu Labs' success instead?

* Not to mention the RepRap Mendel on which the Prusa line was based. And Slic3R, which Prusaslicer is based on (forking chain went: Slic3r > Prusaslicer > Bambu Slicer > Orca Slicer).

 

[S58_is_the_goat]

Prusa is just upset they don't have any talented people designing printers. The xl is a joke and didn't work when it was released, took a year to get it to work and people still complain about bugs.
Took them 2.5 years to release a competitor to the x1c and its average at best with bottom of the barrel components, ex prusa engineer admitted they used ali express quality stepper motors, that's why vfa is included for free in every print.
Even if they brought the prices down it would still be a tough sell. They don't even know how to integrate a camera into the core one, it's literally an afterthought.