Another reply to Josef Průša

submited by

Style Pass

2023-04-01 22:00:05

Josef Průša, one of the founders of Prusa Research, recently published a post titled The state of open-source in 3D printing in 2023. In the post Průša laments the existance of cheap clones of products like the Prusa i3. A Prusa i3 MK3 from Prusa Research in kit form costs 719€, whereas Chinese clones can be had for ~400€ from AliExpress. From the point of view of users, the latter is great. We should hope that competition manages to push the price down even further, so long as this doesn't hurt the quality of the product or threatens workers' rights.

Průša cites the proliferation of cheap solar panels made in the People's Republic of China as a problem. But the market's tendency to cheapen commodities is a historically progressive force in capitalism. Free software and open hardware are perfectly in line with this cheapening force, a force that Průša now seeks to curtail because it threatens Prusa Research's profits. He aims to bring this curtailment about through enclosure. Enclosure takes many forms, but in this case the goal is to disallow "the production of nearly exact 1:1 clones for commercial purposes". In other words Průša seeks to prevent competition. Other fetters on the means of production are also imagined, such as banning the third party production of "obsolete" parts.

A similar sentiment is echoed in the post A reply to Josef Průša by Stargirl Flowers, but this time in regards to Uli Behringer. This despite Behringer engaging in the historically progressive task of cheapening audio hardware by copying other designs and manufaturing and marketing them at scale (putting aside Behringer's litigious behavior). Stargirl calls this competition "parasitic", despite also citing the proliferation of Stratocaster clones and the benefit thereof to musicians.