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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: 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.