Thingiverse 3D Catan Pieces: Legal?

3D Printing & Imaging Education
Thingiverse 3D Catan Pieces:  Legal?

Last week when I saw Thingiverse user jmne’s laser-cut interlocking Settlers of Catan tiles, I noticed this impressive rendering of a set of 3D printable game pieces attached in a comment from user Sublime, and thought seriously about blogging it then, just for the cool factor. But my general policy on 3D models is that I don’t cover them until there’s at least one real physical prototype. In this case, however, I probably should have trusted my instincts, because it turns out, besides the cool factor, Sublime’s design is creating quite a buzz with the legal questions it raises. Michael Weinberg has written an informative analysis of the is-this-legal question over at Public Knowledge. Weinberg’s answer, briefly, is “probably,” but the process of getting there is worth following. [via Boing Boing]

2 thoughts on “Thingiverse 3D Catan Pieces: Legal?

  1. Todd Thrash says:

    Can’t play without the rules and cards. How is this any different than getting scissors and construction paper and cutting out your own pieces?

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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