CH7 Publishing 3D

Session 7. Publishing 3D models and intellectual property

Thursday Mar 4, 16:00 UK = 17:00 CET

Convenors: Tom Flynn (SketchFab), Dinusha Mendis (Bournemouth University), Alicia Walsh (Recollection Heritage)

Alicia Walsh: we will begin with a brief introduction for options for distributing 3D models, and a summary of what 3D printing involves and can be useful for.
Tom Flynn: As 3D capture and content production become simpler and more widely adopted, a natural consequence is that producers of said content seek to publish that content both for viewing the 3D data and making the 3D data available for download. Numerous platforms now exist for publishing interactive 3D models online, each taking different approaches meeting the needs of 3D content publishers with regards to accepted 3D file formats, display options, user agreements and content licensing. This section of the session will give a broad overview of online publishing platforms for 3D content and a more in depth look at how sketchfab.com has approached these topics.
Dinusha Mendis: 3D Printing, 3D Scanning and IP Law: Ownership, Authorship and Infringement. Drawing on the results of a project completed for the European Commission, the talk will consider the IP implications arising from 3D printing and 3D scanning, with particular focus on copyright and cultural organisations. In doing so, the presentation will give an insight into the IP implications surrounding the 3D printing and scanning process, from the perspective of designing a CAD file to sharing, printing and distributing it.

Giorgio Verdiani. 2015. "Bringing Impossible Places to the Public: Three Ideas for Rupestrian Churches in Goreme, Kapadokya Utilizing a Digital Survey, 3D Printing, and Augmented Reality." Open Archaeology 1.1. Available: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opar-2015-0007/pdf
Dinusha Mendis, Davide Secchi & Phil Reeves. 2015. A Legal and Empirical Study into the Intellectual Property Implications of 3D Printing: Executive Summary. Project Report. London: Intellectual Property Office. Available: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21874/

Create a free account on Sketchfab and look at the uploading, editing, and sharing options at the Sketchfab Help Center.
Either: (a) Take a model that you have prepared earlier (e.g. from the photogrammetry session at the beginning of term) and upload it to your account space. (b) If you have not already created your own 3D model, find an existing model on Sketchfab that is CC-BY or public domain, and downloadable. You may find these lists of all public domain (CC0) cultural heritage models or all downloadable cultural heritage models useful.
- Note: Files must be max. 50Mb in order to upload them on your free account.
After you have uploaded your model: add at least 2 annotations, and record your reasoning for your licensing choice, whether you made it downloadable or not, and which editing tools you used.
How else can you make your uploaded model useful/accessible to other users? What would you have liked to be able to do that Sketchfab (or the free account) did not let you do? What ethical, legal, technical and practical issues did you consider?