from the let-the-industrial-espionage-begin dept.
In February, two artists, Nora al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles – claimed to have scanned the bust of Nefertiti in a German history museum using a handheld Kinect Sensor. They then posted the digital files online.
Their goal, they said, was to free the statue from its imprisonment inside the walls of Berlin's Neues Museum by enabling anyone with access to a 3D printer to make their own near-perfect replica – a Nefertiti for all.
Al-Badri and Nelles saw their caper as an act of cultural liberation. It was a gesture against what they believe to be a legacy of colonial theft and appropriation, in which the goods of one nation or culture – in this case, Egypt – ended up in the museums and storerooms of another.
But the stunt illustrated another possibility: the indirect heist. Instead of stealing the thing itself, you can just pilfer the set of parameters – the metadata – that define it.
Why steal the actual bust of Nefertiti when you can instead easily nab the measurements to fabricate a new one? You would not have the original but you would have the peculiar wealth that comes with possessing a potentially infinite number of exact copies.
[Related]: Cosmo Wenman has been scanning and releasing digital files of artefacts housed in the British Museum
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:36AM
They are doing work that museums are already slowly doing (there are millions of pieces to scan, and the scanning technology is in its infancy).
(Score: 3, Informative) by davester666 on Thursday May 12 2016, @07:18AM
They may be scanning the work they "own", but they sure as hell aren't releasing good quality versions of those scans. A few are, but most want to hold this information tight.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:45AM
Just the bust? Why not the face? Ol' Nefri had classic lips!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:48AM
Butter face.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:46AM
Copies of intangible objects are the most valuable of all. Just look at how many billions of dollars Microsoft has acquired by selling copies of Windows.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:56AM
Then all the words we have typed and code we've written is worth less than a carved stone? Don't let a price tag indicate real value.
There was a museum curator scanning and photographing items near the expanding borders of ISIS. He paid for it with his life; a true martyr of civilization.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:02AM
There was a museum curator scanning and photographing items near the expanding borders of ISIS. He paid for it with his life; a true martyr of civilization.
Bad guys du jour are bad guys. Bad bad guys, guys.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @03:01PM
RIP Khaled al-Asaad [wikipedia.org]... That man was incredibly brave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @04:43PM
He was a fucking Muslim to boot. And he was doing his best to protect Middle Eastern cultural heritage, whether Muslim, Christian, or other.
If more people had done the same (standing against injustice), perhaps he would not have had to pay with his life.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday May 13 2016, @07:02AM
A brave man indeed.
Ironically, the only surviving artifacts of the current Middle Eastern uproar may be those previously stolen or hidden.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JNCF on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:00AM
Just look at how many billions of dollars Microsoft has acquired by selling copies of Windows.
And Pink Floyd sold millions of copies of The Wall. Jim Morrison and company cornered the market on The Doors, though. Rock Master Scott had a controlling share of the roof, but he let the motherfucker burn.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:53AM
Theft involves depriving the owner of the property.
The Click-bait Headline gets it right, but not the actual article.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:29AM
Also, heist is, by definition, a form of robbery, which, again by definition, involves violence. There's no indication they used any violence in their act.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:33AM
You mean the museum was open at the time, nobody snuck in after hours, and there wasn't any heist at all?? SO LAME.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday May 12 2016, @07:31AM
Hmm, this doesn't match my conception of the word. I feel like I've heard "heist" used in reference to burglaries before.
Merriam-Websters [merriam-webster.com] seems to think it applies to violent and nonviolent theft alike:
a : to commit armed robbery on
b : steal [merriam-webster.com]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:12AM
Silly Soylentis! "Heist" is just the past tense of "hoist", as in to pick something up. God knows where or when this became associated with crime? Was it those "stationary property" laws?
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:29AM
I omitted that part from the quote, but it was the first definition given by Merriam-Webster. I don't think it's actually past tense (hoisted and heisted are both valid), but rather a cultural variation.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by quintessence on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:59AM
I realize copyrights have been extended to an absurd degree, but certainly anything from ancient Egypt has expired by now?
You can purchase reproductions of famous paintings. Hand-painted even. Not too shabby. How is this much different other than the precision of the reproduction?
Confusing the issue with jargon like metadata is essential saying I can not recreate what I see with my own eyes. No, sorry, nothing within copyright should be construed to be that all-encompassing. You want no eyes except those you deem fit to see it? Keep it under lock and key then. Pushing law into absurdist interpretations marks where the real theft is; conflating industrial espionage with plastic reproductions of Nefertiti.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:18AM
I would direct Soylentils to a movie. It is a French Movie, which might annoy the monolingual illiterates (who cannot read subtitles), but the name of the movie is Diva . Stats incoming as I access the IMDb: Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix . Starring: Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi, Richard Bohringer. Crapola! They left off the real star: Thuy An Luu.
IMDB's version of the plot:
A young opera-loving mailman, Jules, becomes inadvertently entangled in murder, when a young woman fleeing two mob hit men drops an incriminating cassette into his mailbag. Jules has just recently recorded opera star Cynthia Hawkins' latest concert, something of a coup as Hawkins refuses to make recordings of any kind. Soon Jules finds himself the target of the hit men, who want the voice recording, and also of another couple of ominous and mysterious agents.
Recently I reminded a fellow performer that everyone now has a recording device in their pocket, and one of much greater resolution than professional equipment back in 1981. Grateful Dead! Make America Grateful Dead Again!!!! Whoooo Hooo! And, Death to copyright.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:45AM
everyone now has a recording device in their pocket
Nope. I do not own a phone, and I do not approve of your phone-carrying lifestyle. You can speak for yourself, trend-following film snob.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday May 12 2016, @07:21AM
Somebody follow this person! It is obvious that they have a recording device on them! Why else would they deny it? Cam-coder! Aisle 25! Stat!
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Thursday May 12 2016, @12:05PM
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 1) by SixGunMojo on Thursday May 12 2016, @11:39AM
How is this much different other than the precision of the reproduction
It was done with a computer. The process must either be banned outright or patented and litigated to death.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday May 12 2016, @03:36PM
Ancient Egypt doesn't need copyright -- it has its own means [imdb.com] of protecting its intellectual property.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:06AM
just pilfer the set of parameters – the metadata – that define it.
The metadata that defines an ancient bust? Isn't the other way around? The bust defines the metadata, and that data is nothing more than a bunch of measurements.
Having the metadata still means you have nothing, and using the metadata to make a plastic replica in your 3D printer still means you only have a 25 cent replica.
When Disney or Pixar flood the market (and the landfills) with plastic toys, people decry the waste and the trash. But do it with a 3D printer and its oh so cool.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:33AM
Well, maybe it's time to invent the limestone 3D printer.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @07:00AM
What, a maker nerd hasn't felt the throbbing need for a limestone dildo, yet? I am disappointment.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday May 12 2016, @07:52AM
Aren't they variously, called "carvers", "forgers", or perhaps "artists"?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:28AM
They just used "metadata" because it sounded more cyberish.
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Thursday May 12 2016, @11:56AM
Correct. Metadata is data about data. A scan of the statute is just data.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday May 13 2016, @02:47AM
The statue is data in the simulator that is reality (e.g., a collection of quarks, leptons, bosons stored as an array in some hypothetical computer). So a scan could be considered metadata, much like the length of a music file is metadata for the actual music data in the file, the dimensions of the bust summarize the specific configuration of elementary particles that make up the bust.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday May 13 2016, @06:52PM
That going a little deep and is a bit reaching. More philosophical than anything.
If you have an MP3, the actual audio you listen to is the data. The metadata is the title, artist, album, genre, etc. Same goes for video and pictures. What ever describes the data is metadata. A scan of a statue is a digital copy or rendition on the statue. I look at that as a snapshot of the matters volumetric state. That is what we as humans "see" and quantify. It does not describe the statue such as who it is a statue of, color, material, weight, size, smell, etc. A picture is just the state of reflected light as viewed by a camera. It doesn't tell you about the subject, location, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @06:34AM
I want a Moaning Lisa
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Thursday May 12 2016, @07:38AM
Who thinks a replica contains the value of the original? or lessens the value of the original?
Uniqueness provides the value, not approximated reproductions. Reproductions are always of much lesser value since they are demonstrably not the original, especially in cases where an item's provenance is clearly documented.
somewhat analogous example: A lithograph of Picasso certainly doesn't diminish the value of the original. On the contrary, it may increase the market cost to own the original.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @07:45AM
Who thinks a replica contains the value of the original? or lessens the value of the original?
MPAA, RIAA, GEMA, BREIN... The entirety of the copyright industry.
(Score: 2) by NoMaster on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:01AM
Microsoft? KFC? The Fraunhofer Institute? Pfizer? The MPAA?
Just a few examples off the top of my head...
Live free or fuck off and take your naïve Libertarian fantasies with you...
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:21AM
point taken.
I should probably have been more specific, but I think you understand my point. My comments were with respect to artifacts rather than the business cases you mention.
Microsoft's wares are reproduced exactly.
KFC's wares are certainly not replicas, and there is no societal value difference between the original piece of chicken and all the rest.
You have an interesting point regarding the MPAA, but the distinction here is that there is not much of a value placed on the original versus a copy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @11:57AM
An original film print of 2001: A Space Odyssey is going to have a lot more value than an mp4 on a flash drive.
In most cases in the art world the value stems from the statement: "I have it and you do not".
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday May 13 2016, @02:51AM
Value lies in the viewer, not the object.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Friday May 13 2016, @04:49AM
Actually there IS one place where a copy devalues the original and is quite the controversy....guitars. The reason being is a lot of the older manufacturers didn't keep the greatest records (if they are even still around) and it can be damned hard to tell a good Chinese forgery from an original National or Mosrite and even with the companies that do keep good records its still a PITA to have to look up the serial number on every.single.guitar. you look at to make sure its not a fake.
But you can go on YouTube and find example after example of fakes, its gotten so bad that you aren't only see fakes of the really expensive makes, you are seeing fakes of the sub $1500 guitars like American Standard strats and p-basses and I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing fakes of the sub $1K guitars soon, simply because so many of the designs haven't changed in decades and are really easy to copy.
Oh and before someone chimes in "well if they look so authentic why not just play those?" the answer is simple, they are designed to LOOK exactly like the real thing, but you play it any length of time? It just falls apart. The Chinese use what is called "Chinese pot metal" which is made from all the crap we send there for recycling and while they've gotten good at making it look like brass or steel or whatever? At its core its cheap shit metal designed to last just long enough to get someone to buy it. The wood is also crap and more prone to warping, they use inferior glues, its the difference between a real sword and a wall hanger, only with the sword its easy to spot the cheap one.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday May 12 2016, @08:30AM
Instead of stealing the thing itself, you can just pilfer the set of parameters – the metadata – that define it.
Why is this "metadata"? Isn't it just... data?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Interesting) by loic on Thursday May 12 2016, @09:15AM
While stealing stuff from another country is bad indeed, the guys do omit that when the said pieces of art were removed from Egypt, Egyptians were actively destroying, stealing, pillaging everything they could and erasing about every single piece of history they could. 19th century was a kind of a dark age in Egypt. So, archeologists and all these western countries thieves ended up saving even more things than Egyptians ever tried to.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday May 12 2016, @09:24PM
Look at Syria today. Islamic extremists are destroying their history.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 4, Informative) by Jiro on Thursday May 12 2016, @02:11PM
Soylent's own second link (the Cosmo Wenman one) contains a debunking of the main post . It's titled "The Nefertiti 3D Scan Heist Is A Hoax" and is close enough to the top that you probably don't even need to scroll down a page to see it. Are the Soylent editors asleep? Since when do we post articles whose own links debunk them on the first page?
Is this just Soylent's version of clickbait?
(Score: 2) by FrogBlast on Thursday May 12 2016, @03:37PM
I was hoping someone would mention the debunking article. At best, the video they posted is fake, possibly intended to cover for a source inside the museum who passed data to them. The Kinect isn't capable of the fine detail in the finished model, and the angle they're depicted as using it at would have missed large parts of the bust during scanning.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday May 12 2016, @05:47PM
Point of order: The second link does not actually debunk the story, merely saying it was debunked.
It links to a more thorough debunking [wordpress.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @02:16PM
One of Gates' early outside-Microsoft ventures was to recreate painting masterworks on flat screens in the home. I think he actually bought rights to a number of famous paintings hung in museums. Shades of early radio executives envisioning families across America gathering to hear a live symphony.
He moved on, but someone else took it up:
http://upstart.bizjournals.com/companies/startups/2014/01/23/artkick-brings-gates-art-tech-to-life.html?page=all [bizjournals.com]
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Thursday May 12 2016, @02:40PM
We can't have plebs having access to their cultural heritage. That would mean less money for our palaces and lazy bums. We will put gesta^H^Hsecurity at the entrance and around the museum. Anyone caught will be bea^H^Hexpelled. Those evil countries harboring free scans will be invad^H^Hdemocratized! and all infringers will shoo^H^Hprosecuted for profi^H^Hcopyright violations.
//Drrrr StrangeLove
On a more serious note. Museums probably want to keep as much as they want within their domains as to create a artificial scarcity and force people to visit them. There has been some controversy and legal gray area regarding photos of old paintings. And they are likely not prepared for this kind of 3D scanning on the spot. I suspect there will be counteractions. But there's one advantage for any discreet scanner. It's possible to scan without it being obvious that is what's going on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2016, @02:45PM
Which is, essentially, zero. Perhaps that's why it is a "peculiar" wealth.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 12 2016, @04:33PM
Also, the number is as finite as your printing supplies.
And the copies are not exact because of the scanning precision, capacity to capture/print colors, weight, and textures, and lack of actual access to all sides.
But shiny 3D scanning makes great headlines.