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The book in front of you is the first international academic volume on the legal, philosophical and economic aspects of the rise of 3D printing.

In recent years 3D printing has become a hot topic. Some claim that it will revolutionize production and mass consumption, enabling consumers to print anything from clothing, automobile parts and guns to various foods, medication and spare parts for their home appliances. This may significantly reduce our environmental footprint, but also offers potential for innovation and creativity.

At the same time 3D printing raises social, ethical, regulatory and legal questions. If individuals can print anything they want, how does this affect existing systems of intellectual property rights? What are the societal consequences of the various types of products one can print with a 3D printer, for example weapons? Should all aspects of 3D printing be regulated, and if so, how and to what ends? How will businesses (have to) change their way of working and their revenue model in light of the shift to printing-on-demand? How will the role of product designers change in a world where everyone has the potential to design their own products? These and other questions are addressed in high quality and in-depth contributions by academics and experts, bringing together a wide variety of academic discussions on 3D printing from different disciplines as well as presenting new views, broadening the
discussion beyond the merely technical dimension of 3D printing.

Bibi van den Berg is Associate Professor at eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, The Netherlands. Simone van der Hof is Full Professor at eLaw in Leiden and Eleni Kosta is Associate Professor at TILT, the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society at Tilburg University, The Netherlands.

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Introduction.- When 3D printing and the law get together, will crazy things happen?.- CC-PlusDesign.eu - Or How to Apply Creative Commons Licences to 3D Printed Products in the Light of the Most Recent Developments of the European Court of Justice Case Law.- From material scarcity to artificial abundance: The case of FabLabs and 3D printing technologies.- Possible printings: On 3D printing, database ontology and open (meta)design.- The focal practice of 3D printing.- The killer idea: How some gunslinging anarchists held freedom of speech at gunpoint.- Fraud and froth: Free-riding the 3d printing wave.- A taxonomy of online 3D printing platforms.- Adaptivity and rapid prototyping: How 3D printing is changing business model innovation.- How will society adopt 3D printing?.

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