Later when manufacturing starts to move from factories
to
homes and stores the intellectual property of the design
of
a product will be more valuable than the product itself.
Piracy of these designs will be rampant and many
designers will use some form of encryption to protect
themselves.
This will prove futile as the manufacturing
machines themselves will be "jailbroken" as it were to
manufacture unDRM'd products.
I propose a universal, very flexible standard for storing
CAD, description, materials required, MSDS, energy
requirements, sizes, (important part here) the inventor
who should get credit, and so forth in a way that can be
read by anyone but not separated from the digital
signature without destroying the file. That way when
piracy happens at least the original inventor will get
credit
and hopefully enough fame to sell more inventions.
DRM: Digital Rights Management: encryption of
information so that the maker can control said
information
even after it's been sold or licensed out.
MSDS: Material Safety Data Sheet. Instructions for the
safe storage and use of a material.
jailbreaking: A procedure now used on iphones to make
them work with networks and programs not approved by
Apple.
(edit: fixed syntax error in line 11)
(edit: added comma splice for the joy of pedants)