TOOK A MINUTE to get caught up on this thread (+ related)!
Hi, y'all - you guys have hooked me w/ this stuff, and I waited to this point to dive in on the subject of open-sourcing tech.
First, I come from an engineer father (who made sure I was 'literate' in that world) and an artist mother (who would discuss her pieces and her process with me as she worked), and artists and craftsmen and artisans on both sides. I'm a 1st-gen second-waver who used to make water pipes out of old bottles and tubes for weed money back in the day.
I've spent my life watching things change, but a change I have missed has been Bong World and the whole glass menagerie from there: never had such a piece, remember seeing a piece which I now know is the FC-710's source piece, do NOT remember ever getting to hit one (which could be proof that I did, but...). Never been much of that down here in the Big Ugly, cheap-ass hand-pipes and badly-rolled joints have been the rule. So, with so little preface, here I am being dazzled by all these images of glass and dangles and chambers and drips, and the Rube-Goldberg-est contraptions I've ever seen barely hanging together, and hear the open-source cry, seeing and hearing vague descriptions of innovations that I don't understand, but I can easily tell that the current waterpipes of today are LIGHT YEARS beyond anything I ever imagined, even the least of which completely outclasses this poor thing i have here.
So here we are: art, glass, art glass, AND stoner equipment, AND technical/technological innovations in equal measure.
Art is inherently one-of-a-kind, even if the IMAGE of the art is everywhere (only ONE actual Mona Lisa, etc). Art has always REQUIRED patronage past a certain point, because the artist must survive to complete the work, and must gain enough from doing it that the quality of the vision and the work can both be maintained going forward. A genuine work of ORIGINAL art is always more significant than the most perfect copy of that work because of the source vision, which inspires a lot more than just a desire to cash in, and THAT IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH COUNTERFEITING. It robs the artist of their rightful earnings by CLAIMING to sell AN ORIGINAL, whereas an honest copy, however meticulous, has no more value than the price of the materials, the quality of the design, the earnings of the artisan who makes it - and it's worth to the ultimate purchaser/owner.
The copy of the work of art is NOT A work of art; and if it's cheap enough for everyone who wants one to acquire one, then it is A COMMODITY. "Just like a Mobius" is not at all the same as "no shit, a REAL Mobius": the first defrauds no-one, the claim that it's "just like" can be evaluated; the second robs both the artist of their fair wage, AND the purchaser of the ORIGINAL that they prize and can pay for. If you ClAIM IT as REAL, and you SELL IT AS IF it's real, then you are you defraud the buyer, and steal from the artist (and not just a missed sale).
This is where I think the open-source concept gains foothold. IF we recognize the value of the original work of the artists, we can consider the technical aspects separately. Their value is entirely practical, they not only ARE being copied in great numbers, but copying, improving on, combining technical and technological improvements and advances has been going on for as long as us monkeys have been making things, and apparently that can't be regulated or legislated out of us. I'll point briefly to the complicating structural factors imposed by a world economy based on the notional 'principle' of I-stole-it-fair-and-square-so-you-have-to-help-me-keep-it before moving on....
What i saw initially in the movement here was an effort to take the whole 'knock-off' notion out of the hands of the copycats and counterfeiters & get involved in the technical evolution of the glassworks themselves. This is a conceptual step toward replicator technology, on-demand customization of complex designs, and I still think that the synergy of improvements brought to the various 'original' FC pieces and the price-points attached are a real landmark in making these high-end technologies available to a broader base of the cannibizing population.
As I sit here w/ my 20-dollar, unable to get both a decent bubble AND keep the water out of my mouth, this all seems Promethean: I really do need to switch away from the combustion path, and I need to be equipped for it; there simply IS NO WAY to get even the simplest oil tools in this major metro area, and I'm sure the growing ranks of medical users have extra difficulty affording the art on top of the medicine. As legislation movements grow around the country, I'm sure the UNTAPPED market for both art and functional commodity glass is almost unlimited, so I fully support learning from adopting and adapting REAL technological innovation in cannibizing, to the benefit of everyone, but it should be clearly commodity glass, not aping the art but developing the functionality in tandem with the artists, not attempting to pressure foreign artisans to duplicate works of art that can be used to steal from the unwary.
Wow. Okay. All that said, *I* would really like to see "the FC brand" focus on perfecting the bubbling and recycling technologies, improving and foolproofing and simplifying the whole hot-surface thing, helping to improve quality out of China (increasing markets by increasing satisfaction) and continuing to refine and improve those designs over time - crafting simple, durable, fully-functional glass pieces with clear use-paths for herb, dab, and vape - that are available for the cost of a quarter or less.
All of this is clearly putting pressure on the Chinese glass houses to improve capacity and skill level, that means more expense for them, and it really is foolish to call their attention to these threads, and then announce willingness to pay much more than they're currently asking for pieces they're practically already making. If prices haven't spiked at least once since all this started, I'm amazed, but economic pressure here in the "yoU,SAh" may have squeezed them out of it. It seems like the cats are all over the shop floor now: everybody's messaging someone in China about this piece or that piece or a discount or a new-old-some-idea, and it seems like the entire idea has completely broken down.
I'd like to see that notion resurrected - or adopted, if I made all that up, just as I'd like to see our home-grown glass artists and artisans get full worth from their work, however they define that.
An amazing set of conversations - what a ride! Much appreciation to blankrider, Steven, and so many others (whose names are too new for me to recall ATM) who have made all this (and related!) so worthwhile, and who keep making the world go 'round in such interesting ways.... Looking forward to being here.
Optical scanning is a finicky bastard. Things like glossy surfaces and shadows really skew the results. And dimensions can be off by several millimeters. 
just tell your wife she's to slow 
