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The New MakerBot Replicator Might Just Change Your World | Wired Design | Wired.com

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Weapons of Mass Creation: Portable 3-D Printers Have Arrived

[source]

<< That designer is Emmanuel Gilloz, a 24-year-old Frenchman who built the FoldaRap. Gilloz’s portable machine is a variant of the RepRap model that inspired the MakerBot and a variety of other popular 3-D printers. While other machines are optimized for resolution or build-size, Gilloz focused on convenience and portability.  >>

3-D Printer Hack Produces Eye-Popping Color 

[source]
<< Richard Horne, an electrical engineer and 3-D printing enthusiast, wasn’t happy with that limitation. He wanted to print in color, hundreds of them, even.
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The RichRap has three extruder motors feeding into one nozzle, or hot end. Each motor spools plastic filament into the hot end where it is melted, then deposited on a build surface. An operator could load a RichRap with red, yellow, and blue plastics and generate green parts by mixing the yellow and blue, or purple by mixing red and blue.
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With a professional color 3-D printer, like those made by ZCorp, designers have the ability to specify color down to a pixel level. A design could have a green “pixel” right next to a red “pixel.” With the RichRap, color effects are more gradual and organic, as the melted plastic takes time to transition.>>

The LEGAL side of things [source]
<< “Printing in 3-D is a disruptive technology that raises a lot of intellectual property issues,” says Michael Weinberg, a senior staff attorney with Public Knowledge, a group that advocates for consumers’ digital rights.
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What 3-D printing hobbyists mostly have to watch out for, Weinberg argues, is copying artistic patterns or designs on an object. That violates copyright. But if you stick to reproducing or modeling the basic physical nature of something — particularly if you’re rejiggering a physical concept into a new form — you’re probably safe.
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So really, the longer-term danger here is that manufacturers will decide the laws aren’t powerful enough. Once kids start merrily copying toys, manufacturers will push to hobble 3-D printing with laws similar to the Stop Online Piracy Act.
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To stave this off, Weinberg is trying to educate legislators now.