Research On Copyright Problem Of 3D Printing

Copyright is such a right that the law endows copyright owner with the power to use, and control his work so that he shall acquire the spiritual and material interests. There is no doubt that technological development plays a great part in copyright system. And we can even say that without the development of science and technology, copyright couldn’t have formed. 3D printing has aroused people’s wide and continuous concern in recent years. This is mainly because 3D printing may like image technology and internet technology, which may have a revolutionary influence on existing copyright system. The research result about the influence which 3D printing does on copyright system recently in our country is relatively less. Just because of that, the author is very interested in the copyright problems caused by 3D printing, and has already done some exploration. This paper combines the third amendment of China’s Copyright Law, connects 3D printing with the development reality in our country, and learns successful experience of 3D printing protection from the western countries. It hopes to provide referable advice for clarifying the status of 3D printing digital model in our country’s Copyright Law and perfecting our copy right system and fair use system.The paper is made up of introduction, main body and conclusion. Its main body consists of four parts:The first part mainly introduces 3D printing’s production, rationale and the general process to conduct 3D printing. First of all, this part briefly introduces the developmental history of 3D printing. Then it presents some typical types of 3D printing. Lastly, it introduces two kinds of 3D printing processes. From the introduction, the readers can have a detailed understanding of 3D printing, and it also provides essential background for discussing the copyright problems caused by 3D printing in the following parts.The second part primarily discusses about how to protect 3D printing in Copyright Law. First, it discusses the problems about copyright protection of 3D printing digital model. This part expounds the criteria of a work’s originality, whether 3D printing digital model constitutes work or not, and which type it shall be if it constitutes work. Then this part probes into the copyright protection of 3D printing products. It mainly analyzes if 3D printing products constitute work and which work of type they may constitute. Finally, from the point of copyright obligation body, this part analyzes how to prevent the infringement that actors may do to the copyright owners of 3D printing products.In the third part, the paper mainly states the challenge which 3D printing poses to China’s existing copyright system. It can be divided into two aspects: the first aspect elaborates the existing narrow “copy” concept in our country’s Copyright Law. As varied copying which from two dimension to three dimension hasn’t been concluded into the protection scope of our Copyright Law, it can’t adapt to the development of 3D printing any more. The second aspect mainly discusses that in the century of 3D printing, the existing fair use system in our Copyright Law has confronted extreme difficulty.In the fourth part, in order to make our Copyright Law adapt to the requirements of 3D printing century, concerning the existing problems, the author gives some advice to perfect our country’s Copyright Law. They mainly include expanding the extension of the existing “copy” concept, providing protection to varied copying, bringing 3D printing digital model into the scope of work clearly in our Copyright Law, perfecting amendment right of the author, introducing the agreement of knowledge sharing, adding “rationality” criteria in the foundation of existing fair use system, and introduce the compensation system of private copying.