What can't we 3D print these days? The additive manufacturing may be destined to change how we make and acquire objects. Will replicating be the new counterfeiting?

The concern here is what if people were to 3D print your product instead of buying it off the shelf? There's already 3D scanning, which can lead to 3D printing plans.

New Scientist points out the practice of record companies that embed copyright information into mp3s at a frequency too high for human ears to hear. And banknotes are printed with a pattern called the EURion constellation, which shuts down color copiers that detect it being scanned.

Virginia Tech professor Thomas A. Campbell describes another idea in Scientific American: We could design original objects with specially-formed nanomaterials that trigger specific shut-down commands when someone attempts to replicate them. That means, products could be protected by a "watermark" with a unique material that's only detectable at certain wavelengths.

While we're certainly not at that stage of worry just yet, it is one for concern. After all, who wouldn't love a Star Trek replicator? [Scientific American]