Copyright issues are inevitable with its expansion into the content industry. Content providers protected digital content by cryptographic, digital rights management, digital watermarking etc. The problem is that the 3D printing process disables those protections thus making copyrights irrelevant. This content may be illegally copied and redistributed in offline and internet markets. This weak point of content protection is called analog hole.
Copyright Issues
In 2013, a 3D printing technology startup created a smartphone charging cradle inspired by the iron throne from the TV show “Game of Thrones”. The startup registered this product for $50 on a website but sales were blocked by HBO. They did not digitally copy an existing object but designed their model based on the TV image.
Illegal Distribution Scenarios
Category 1
Alice sends the digital content with copyright protection technologies to Bob, through the internet, removable memory, content sharing platform etc. So, Bob decrypts the content and illegally distributes it to third parties.
Category 2
Alice sends the 3D objects to Bob. There are three cases in which Bob can leak this object. In the first case, consider Bob as an authorized person to use the 3D printer. So he leaks the content using a 3D printer. In the second case, Bob prints the object and then scans it to remove digital identification information using analog hole. In the third case, Bob prints the object obtained through the second case using his own 3D printer.
Category 3
Alice sends the 3D printed object to Bob. There are three cases in which Bob can leak this object. In case 1 Bob leaks the printed object to third parties before market release. Commercial returns are significantly impacted if the object is leaked. In case 2, Bob scans the 3D printed object and shares the digital content with third parties. In case 3, bob reproduces an illegal object through case 2 using a 3D printer.
Copyrights Protection Methods
Menger Curvature and K-means Clustering
The 3D printing models are classified into groups based on the Menger curvature values and K-means clustering. The watermark data are embedded into a group of facets by changing the mean menger curvature of each group according to the bit of watermark data. In each group, we select a facet that has Menger curvature closest to the changed mean menger curvature and then transforms the selected facet vertices according to the changed menger curvature.
Thermal images
This method embeds information on copyrights inside 3D objects by forming fine structures inside the objects as a watermark. This can be read out information non-destructively using far-infrared light.
X-ray Photography
This method overcomes the disadvantages of a thermal camera. Using X-rays allows copyright information to be included in the pattern distribution and depth information of 3D printed object.
RFID Tag
A print layer including an RFID Tag is inserted during 3D printing, from which copyrights information can be detected or extracted using an RFID reader. It is difficult to remove the tag without damaging the object.
Reference : https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8430523
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