By Erich Schwartzel
Right after watching the trailer for "Star Wars: The Force
Awakens" last April, Ken Landrum began building his own
Stormtrooper gun. From his home in St. Louis, he cobbled together
images of the "blaster" featured in the ad, and then used software
on his personal computer to design nearly 40 separate pieces to be
3-D printed and assembled into a near-exact replica of the Walt
Disney Co. prop.
"My goal is to make it better than the studio did," he said. At
a minimum, he has done it faster: Mr. Landrum posted photos of his
design on a message board for 3-D printing enthusiasts--some eight
months before the movie premieres and five months before most
official Disney toys hit shelves. As the movie's opening gets
closer, fans have filled his inbox asking for the files needed to
print their own. Mr. Landrum said he handed out more than 100 in
one week in mid-July, recently deciding to start charging $55 a
file. "It's gone haywire," he said.
Mr. Landrum's hobby is part of a looming problem for Hollywood.
The steady rise of 3-D printing as an accessible activity for
millions means that the specter of digital piracy, which has
wreaked havoc on the media business in the Internet age, now hangs
over sales of physical products long considered immune to such
forces.
The nascent marketplace for do-it-yourself consumer products
means the film industry could soon face the same kind of legal
quagmire that the music industry waded into over piracy in the
early 2000s. At this point, most of the printing is done by loyal
fans who want to trade blueprints and products for free. But that
is changing as more 3-D printers turn living rooms into
mini-factories and piracy sites list 3-D files alongside illegally
copied movies.
Among other likely effects, prices for legitimate products may
have to go down when 3-D printers crowd the marketplace with viable
alternatives to the toy store.
"You used to buy a CD, and the fact that it was physical lent it
certain protections. When music was digitized, it became a pure
information good and costless to replicate," said Brett Danaher, a
professor of economics at Wellesley College who studies piracy and
digital distribution. "I think there's a direct parallel to be made
with 3-D printing."
The phenomenon is likely to go far beyond entertainment, he
added, affecting everything from auto parts to coffee cups. "It's
not going to be a geek thing," said Mr. Danaher. "It's going to be
part of our everyday lives."
The online marketplaces for 3-D printed objects resemble a
Wal-Mart aisle full of comic-book heroes and well-known cartoon
characters--including "Shrek" statuettes, a recreated prop designed
to resemble Angelina Jolie's headdress in "Maleficent" and a snack
dish modeled after the "Star Wars" Millennium Falcon (lightsaber
toothpicks included). Gandalf, Homer Simpson and Walt Disney's head
also make appearances.
Hobbyists peer-review designs until they arrive at a
professional grade of precision and can respond faster than the
studios to a product opportunity. When "Star Trek" actor Leonard
Nimoy died in February, a fan uploaded a file that can be used to
print a statuette of his trademark "Spock" hand gesture that
day.
The nascent market has the potential to eat into one of
Hollywood's most important moneymakers.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. has built out its
consumer-products division to help when a movie underperforms.
Consumer products can also turn a hit movie into a yearslong
financial windfall. Disney's second-quarter consumer-products
revenue was up 10%, to $971 million, in large part thanks to
"Frozen" toys selling at a fast clip more than 18 months after the
movie's release. (Rudimentary versions of that movie's Elsa and
Olaf characters are available for download on several 3-D printing
sites.) Spokespeople at both studios declined to comment on the fan
creations available online.
So far, Hollywood has avoided taking significant legal action
against 3-D printing enthusiasts, careful not to re-create the
fallout that occurred when the music industry sued fans for sharing
songs online. Several consumer-products executives at major studios
said they're monitoring the trend with a watchful eye, even if it
is unclear how exactly to respond. Some in the industry, like
Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, Disney's Marvel Studios and Time
Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., have released sanctioned 3-D designs to
promote fan creations ahead of a new movie's release.
"It's a tightrope walk between maintaining control...and not
getting in the way of the passionate fan embrace," said Marty
Brochstein, senior vice president of industry relations at the
Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association.
The tools needed to join the printing community are getting
cheaper and more accessible by the day, even as the process of
building an object layer-by-layer remains time-consuming and
expensive. About 217,000 3-D printers are expected to ship
world-wide this year--more than twice the number of units last
year, according to Gartner Inc. That figure is expected to double
each year between now and 2018, and cheaper models costing less
than $1,000 are also becoming more prevalent. Free software can be
used to design the schematics used to print the objects.
Knowing who to pursue in a court case can be a challenge for
studios. Many hobbyists trade designs for free, while others charge
hundreds of dollars and accept bulk orders for products. And
because a 3-D printed object exists in the digital ether before
becoming a tangible item, legal experts say it is hard to know who
exactly to target: The person who conceptualized the design, the
person who wrote its code or the person who operated the
printer.
"Right now, counterfeit products are made from a handful of
countries and imported and then sold," said Michael McCue, an
intellectual-property lawyer at Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. "[New
printing technology] lowers the barriers to entry for
counterfeiting and makes it possible for anyone with a 3-D printer
to be a counterfeiter."
Studio action against 3-D printing has followed guidelines set
out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which calls on
websites hosting copyright-infringing content to remove it when
notified by the rightful owners.
Shapeways, an online marketplace that also handles 3-D printing
orders for hobbyists and merchants, said it responds to such
"takedown notices" from a studio or other company. Shapeways asks
users if they are the rightful copyright owner when uploading a
design, but says its marketplace is too expansive to police every
item. In a recent search, several hundred products currently for
sale on Shapeways were inspired by Marvel properties, including an
Avengers logo ring ($10), Incredible Hulk figurine ($170) and
wearable Iron Man helmet ($1,847).
One new company, Source3, is in negotiations with several major
studios to manage 3-D licensing for fan creations. The company
envisions a system that allows rights holders to set rules on how
3-D files are made available.
But there are hurdles: It can be harder to trace 3-D files, and
confirm that an infringement is occurring, than it is with music or
movies. And no major online outlet like Google Inc.'s YouTube or
Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store yet exists for the format.
Still, the Source3 believes it is tapping a growth market. In a
presentation to studios, Scott Sellwood, Source3's vice president
of business development, shows a photo of a group of elementary
school students who printed 3-D toys as part of a class project.
Many hold replicas of their favorite action figures and cartoon
characters. "Are these kids infringers?" he asked. "Or extensions
of your brand?"
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
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