We just marked a major milestone at MakerBot with the 100,000th thing being published to Thingiverse!  We’ve seen quite an explosion of uploaded and published 3D designs to Thingiverse since we launched the Customizer App in January of this year.  Just take a look at how the numbers of available 3D designs on Thingiverse have been rising steadily – from 35,000 items on Thingiverse in January 2013 – before the Customizer was launched – to 60,000 two months ago, and 80,000 a month ago.  And now, 100,000+ things!!  And, downloads are more than 21.1 million!!  That’s a lot of designing and printing of 3D items.  The Next Industrial Revolution has begun.

The honor of becoming Thingiverse’s 100,000th published thing goes to Thingiverse user jg952 for the “My Customized Message Keychain.”  We think this is great – and we can’t wait to see the numbers of published 3D designs expand even further.  Check out all of the interesting 3D designs on Thingiverse at Thingiverse.com and give some props to Thingiverse user jg952 while you’re at it.

Awesome things are coming up as we approach the end of the year, including the holidays and the move to our new MakerBot headquarters in downtown Brooklyn. We’re trying not to let these events interfere with customer support more than they have to, but there are a couple of upcoming dates when MakerBot Support will be partially or completely unavailable.

MakerBot will be closed on December 25th, Christmas Day and January 1st, New Year’s Day. On these days, our Support techs will be visiting family and resting up so they can continue to offer great support in the year to come. On December 26th, as we move our systems from our charming, let’s say “rustic”, old offices to our spiffy new ones, MakerBot Support will be standing by to answer your emails, but will not be available by phone.

The MakerBot Support Team would like to wish you a very happy holiday season, and we thank you for your business! In the mean time, you might also find the answers you’re looking for in our extensive documentation — start at our documentation and support pages.

Have you been wondering who’s on the other side of the line? Meet some of our Support Team members in the video above. Also, be sure to check out the Support pages on our website. We’ve reorganized a bit to help you find the right information easier.

Team members Bethany Weeks, Brandon Bowman, Matt Rogge, and MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis at the 3D4D Challenge awards ceremony

Remember that 3D-printed boat made out of milk cartons? As it happens, that was a stepping stone to a $100,000 first place finish in the 3D4D Challenge for that same team.

The University of Washington’s WOOF (Washington Open Object Fabricator) turned their sites toward a big global problem: a lack of hygienic toilets. Their custom 3D printer works with recycled plastics, such as polyethylene milk cartons to create items for people in need. In this case, the team designed a “low-cost, lightweight, and energy efficient toilets”.

The $100,000 grand prize from TechForTrade will help the group form a non-profit company to further their projects. MakerBot was a proud sponsor of the program, and the team will be awarded a MakerBot Replicator for their work.

Congratulations to the WOOF team and all of the great entries!

via 3D4D Challenge

Hello, I’m Rich McCarthy, and since June I’ve been MakerBot’s in-house attorney.  In these three months, I’ve been working on playing catch-up with all the little things that fell through the cracks during MakerBot’s first three years without a full time staff attorney. In addition to that, MakerBot closed a lease on a new headquarters, leased a retail store, and launched a new product. As some of the busyness is now behind us, I’m starting to have time to work on MakerBot’s “wishlist” tasks. And one of those tasks is responding to community input on our Terms of Service (TOS).

Despite what you may have heard, nothing has changed with the Thingiverse TOS. Bre publicly announced the last change, in February, 2011 here. I’ve looked at the TOS of some other sites that host user-content (Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo,  FaceBook, etc.) and see places where we could improve the clarity and content of our own. But overall, the Thingiverse TOS is consistent with industry practices.

Read fairly, our TOS are structured similarly to any large website that hosts user-content. When a user uploads a Thing, MakerBot requires a broad license so that we can do things like copy the Thing to other servers for content caching, or make the Thing available to the public. Without a license from the user, these acts might constitute wrongful “reproduction” and “distribution” under copyright law.

MakerBot confines this license to only granting us the rights to use user-content in relation to operating Thingiverse.  MakerBot does not claim ownership over user-content and we distinguish between Intellectual Property belonging to MakerBot, and that of the users.

Secondarily, users select a license, such as Creative Commons governing how others may use their work, including us.  When we use designs from Thingiverse outside the Thingiverse ecosystem, we adhere to the way users have chosen to manage the copyright terms that automatically attach to their work.  Moreover, we typically go beyond that by asking users if they approve, something I have personally done on several occasions.  We are keen on maintaining the spirit of Thingiverse as it has always been and on empowering a community of makers to share their digital designs openly.

One provision of the MakerBot TOS that has caused confusion is the waiver of “Moral Rights or attribution.” I understand that this may sound sinister, but Moral Rights have a specific legal definition. Moral Rights (droits moraux) is a doctrine, mainly from French Law, that is not part of US copyright law. This means that unless you are a citizen of one of the countries that recognize Moral Rights, this provision doesn’t affect you.

The reason MakerBot requires a waiver of these rights is to lend certainty to the license that MakerBot relies upon to operate Thingiverse. Because Moral Rights operate outside the context of US Copyright law, they can cause contradictory results. For example, there is a Moral Right against “mutilation” of a work. This can include any derivative work, remix, or mashup that the author disapproves of. Because Moral Rights exist outside of US copyright law, a user can grant someone a license that allows derivatives, and then cause trouble when they dislike a specific derivative work. This approach is fundamentally inconsistent with the intention of Thingiverse, which is to share things and their derivatives.

Sound farfetched? In one case an author signed a contract, and was paid to ghostwrite a novel. The author collected her fee and then sued, relying on the Moral Right of Attribution, to have her name associated with the novel, and won. (Bragance v. Michel de Grece et Editions Orban, Court of Appeal of Paris, February 1, 1989, 142 R.I.D.A. 301 (1989)) In sum, Moral Rights just introduce too much uncertainty into the already complex world of US copyright law. We deal with it by restricting our agreement to be governed solely by US copyright law.

I will be working on revising the TOS in the direction of “less legalese and more reader-ease”—terms that allow MakerBot to operate Thingiverse properly as a service-provider and that respect users’ contributions and the community’s values. It’s hard to make a legally binding agreement that is easy to read. It’s not a skill that lawyers spend much time honing but understandability will be a chief goal of the revision.

Thank you,

Rich McCarthy
Counsel
MakerBot Industries LLC

For those asking where the new MakerBot Replicator 2 will be on display, there are two exciting opportunities right around the corner: World Maker Faire in New York City, and the 3D Print Show in London. Details below.

The MakerBot team is looking forward to another great show at World Maker Faire, our hometown show. There will be several Replicator 2′s on display for everyone to have a good look. There will also be plenty of items made with MakerBot PLA, so this is a perfect chance to find out why we love this material so much.

Visitors to our booth will also have the chance to order the MakerBot Replicator 2 and purchase the original MakerBot Replicator on the spot.

Where

New York Hall of Science, Queens, NY

When

Saturday, September 29, 2012

10:00am – 7:00pm

Sunday, September 30, 2012

10:00am – 6:00pm

This is incredibly exciting. This year, we will have an exciting presence at the 3D Printshow in London. This will be the European debut of the MakerBot Replicator 2. This is another very exciting opportunity for us to meet a bunch of new people and learn about new applications for our technology. This is why we love going to shows like this; they come up with ideas we never thought of for what could be made on a MakerBot.

We hope you can join us for this one-of-a-kind show.

Where

The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London, EC1Y 4SD 

When

Friday October 19th – Trade Day: 12.30pm – 6.00pm

Live Show: 7.30pm – 9.30pm

Saturday October 20th – Public Day:

Morning Show 10.ooam – 2.00pm

Afternoon Show 3.00pm – 7.00pm

Saturday 20th Live Show: 8.00pm – 9.30pm

Sunday October 21st – Public Day: 10.00am – 4.00pm

Artist Hannes Langeder built this Porsche using a plastic frame, covered in tape and gold foil, on top of a bicycle with four wheels.  If he can build a road-worthy Porsche with nothing more than plastic tubing and tape, what could you build with a MakerBot at your disposal? ¹

1. If this boggles your mind…  Just think what Tony Stark would have done with one in a cave. [↩]

Fully printable padlock by ttsalo

I remember once when I was in elementary school a kid said he wanted a case for his most valuable baseball card made out of diamond.  His reasoning was that if diamond was the hardest toughest thing known to man, then it would keep his baseball card safe.  Of course, this invited the obvious criticism that the case would be worth much more than any card he would care to keep inside it.¹

There’s no doubt Thingiverse citizen ttsalo’s fully printable padlock is an amazing feat and working experiment in design, materials, and function.  Besides it’s function as a way to learn or teach others about how a padlock works, a fully plastic padlock would also be really useful to keep some things locked.  You could keep the contents of a cabinet safe from small children or a shed safe from small animals.  It might be useful for very time-limited purposes as well – such as for clothes for use in a gym.  And, don’t forget, given that there are no parts to corrode or rust, it could be used underwater!

Untitled by ttsalo

This thing brought to you by

1. Setting aside the other issue of how the heck you would make such a case in the first place. [↩]

Curiosity’s Snaps Picture of Its Shadow

Yesterday at about 10:30pm PST the Mars Rover “Curiosity” landed safely on the surface of the planet Mars and transmitted the above, its first photograph, back to Earth. ¹  Thanks to Thingiverse citizen ThePlanetMike we can all have our very own Mars Curiosity Rover as a little souvenir to remember the day.

And, if you’re feeling particularly nostalgic, don’t forget to print a little copy of Tony Buser’s snap-fit Mars Exploration Rover.

Untitled by ThePlanetMike

This thing brought to you by

Untitled by tbuser

This thing brought to you by

1. You’ll note I refrained from making jokes about what would happen if Curiosity saw its own shadow… [↩]

Anything they want.

There was a phenomenal event over the weekend hosted by DIYAbility which showed what a great tool The Replicator can be for people with disabilities that cause limited mobility and hand control. Especially now that we only sell fully assembled and tested machines, anyone can start making things almost right away.

The workshop’s goal was to expose some teens to personal creation technology using a MakerBot Replicator. John writes,

As more people with disabilities have access to computers through operating system accessibility features, joysticks, head mice and eye gaze, whatever the technology is used to gain access, 3D printing is also an option for them to explore their creativity, make custom devices and perhaps find interests that become sustainable careers.

So awesome. And we have to give a big shoutout to our friends at Tinkercad, whose design program is perfect for introducing people to the world of 3D design. DIYAbility led workshop participants through some of the Tinkercad lessons to give these kids their first 3D models. These are some rad teens with great patience, and we’re happy to read about their fun with MakerBot.

It’s also great to read that the hosts of the event found it easy to learn on The Replicator right along with the kids.

3D printing was new to the group, even to myself but it was simple to make small objects and learn about this process – one more cool trick that personal computers can perform.