UNPACKING THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF SHARING 3D DIGITAL DESIGNS: IMPLICATIONS FOR IP AND BEYOND A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Stephanie Michelle Santoso December 2019 © 2019 Stephanie Michelle Santoso UNPACKING THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF SHARING DIGITAL DESIGNS AMONG 3D PRINTING USERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR IP AND BEYOND Stephanie Michelle Santoso, Ph. D. Cornell University 2019 This doctoral research identifies and examines the challenges that 3D printing users face in creating and sharing digital design files, hardware and documentation related to intellectual property and other critical issues. In particular, this thesis describes the processes that 3D printing users undertake in leveraging Creative Commons (CC) and other approaches to securing IP rights. To investigate these questions, I employ a theoretical lens informed by the social construction of technology, free innovation and recursive publics. Through a combination of 20 open-ended interviews with members of the 3D printing community, the development of three in-depth case studies and additional secondary data analyses, I find that fewer members of the community use Creative Commons than originally expected and that there are persistent gaps in the understanding of how Creative Commons can be useful for the sharing of digital design files, hardware and documentation. While the original goals of this research focused more specifically on the IP issues facing 3D printing users, the overall findings of these activities provide broader insights around how users of a particular technology, in this case 3D printing, engage in different kinds of practices around sharing what they have created and the ways that these behaviors create an active community committed to perpetuating the creation of new knowledge, solutions and objects. While this research started out with very focused questions about one very specific kind of sharing (the use of CC licenses, what drives this use, challenges around this use, etc.), the research and findings ended up being more about how the broader practices of sharing digital design files are informed by the existing values and experiences of the individuals involved, field- specific issues and existing power structures, institutions and hierarchies that can enable or challenge this kind of work. Collectively, this research suggests that while IP issues do create barriers to 3D printing users sharing the digital design files that they have created, many 3D printing users have found different ways to address these issues. The learning and insights from this research are used to develop a set of recommendations to inform the development of technical mechanisms, educational initiatives and policy interventions that make it possible for 3D printing users to continue to share what they’ve created in ways that encourage open innovation and the building off on each other’s work safely, securely and with the acknowledgement of creators’ contributions. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Stephanie Santoso is a PhD Candidate in Information Science. She is the Director of Maker Initiatives at the education non-profit organization, Citizen Schools. She has worked as the Senior Advisor for Making at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama Administration and has served as a Program Fellow at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Infosys Foundation USA. She is also a Founding Board Member of the national non-profit organization, Nation of Makers. She holds an MS in Information Management from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Media Studies from the University of Virginia. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am incredibly grateful to my advisor, Steve Wicker and my committee members, Steve Jackson and Trevor Pinch for their unwavering support, guidance and mentorship throughout my Ph.D. journey. I could not have done this without the love and support of my parents, Muljadi and Theresa and my husband, Andreas. My colleagues in the Information Science, Science and Technology Studies, and Communications Ph.D. programs have been wonderful collaborators and thought partners at each stage of this research. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 CHAPTER 1- Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Research Problem ....................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Goals of this Research ................................................................................................ 8 1.4 Relevance of this research .......................................................................................... 9 2 CHAPTER 2- Literature Review ..................................................................................... 12 2.1 Intellectual Property Rights Regimes and Creative Commons ................................ 12 2.2 Patent Law ................................................................................................................ 12 2.2.1 Patents and 3D Printing .................................................................................... 14 2.2.2 Patents and 3D Printed Objects ........................................................................ 17 2.2.3 Where 3D Models Intersect Patent Law ........................................................... 19 2.3 Copyright Law .......................................................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Copyright and 3D Models ................................................................................ 24 2.3.2 First Sale Doctrine and Exhaustion .................................................................. 35 2.4 Other previous legal cases focused on technology related to 3D printing ............... 38 2.4.1 Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. ................................... 39 2.4.2 A&M Records, Inc. vs. Napster, Inc. ............................................................... 39 2.4.3 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., et al., vs. Grokster, LTD., et al.............. 41 2.4.4 Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. ...................... 42 2.5 Trademarks and 3D Printing .................................................................................... 44 3 CHAPTER 3- Theoretical Framework ............................................................................ 46 3.1 Social Construction of Technology .......................................................................... 47 3.2 Recursive Publics ..................................................................................................... 53 3.3 Free Innovation ........................................................................................................ 58 4 CHAPTER 4- Research Design and Methodology ......................................................... 65 4.1 Epistemology ............................................................................................................ 66 4.2 Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research .......................................... 68 4.3 Sampling ................................................................................................................... 71 4.4 Secondary Data ........................................................................................................ 73 4.5 Reliability & Validity ............................................................................................... 74 5 CHAPTER 5- Interview Analysis ................................................................................... 76 5.1 Valuable but unexpected insights regarding the sharing of digital designs and other 3D printing innovations ....................................................................................................... 85 vii 5.2 Critical factors which inform the sharing of digital files and 3D printing hardware 87 5.3 Challenges and questions that arise once the decision to share something has been made 95 5.4 How applications of 3D printing to specific fields create risks and uncertainties and how these are resolved ....................................................................................................... 100 5.5 Users have a general lack of familiarity with how Creative Commons can be used in the sharing, distribution and governance of their digital design files. This includes users who are actively using the licenses. ................................................................................... 102 5.6 Users leverage 3D printing as a technological artifact to tackle a specific long-term problem within a field. ....................................................................................................... 104 5.7 Users can play a critical role in the development and advancement of 3D printing hardware and tools. ............................................................................................................ 107 5.8 Organizations that previously focused on developing 3D assets specifically for 3D printing are learning that this was a myopic approach. ...................................................... 109 5.9 An institution’s or field’s overall policies or norms around IP can