That’s a fair point, I guess I think of digital goods in a different context.

They definitely deserve compensation for their work, and how they chose to do it is absolutely valid. I think I’m biased toward open source hardware where the labor of creating their digital files is subsidized by selling the physical product instead. I realize that’s a risk and takes more effort though, so I totally understand why they didn’t do that.

I replied to another response similar to yours so I won’t bore you unless you want to read more, but I mostly agree with what you said and I totally agree that the work itself to create the file is worth compensation. I’m just a penny-pinching bastard who would rather find out if the print is actually good before paying lmao.

Pay-what-you-want, donations, and subsidizing with a higher price for the final product makes more sense to me in terms of these kinds of digital goods, but that’s besides the point, and I’m no expert on this kind of thing.

Honestly I’d be willing to pay 5-8 bucks for the final product since it looks more polished than any of the free designs I’ve seen. But yes, fair points.

I don’t disagree, never said people should work for free. I recognize there’s a disjoint in believing good information should be free[ly accessible] and also that people deserve compensation for work, though. It’s just one of those contradictions I haven’t solved as far as my own beliefs.

More than anything I was complaining, like I said it’s a totally valid business choice, I’m just a penny-pincher lol.

Oh definitely, I just think it’s easier to justify paying for a physical product than it is paying for a single file if you still need to manufacture it yourself. Still a valid business practice, I’m just biased toward “information should be free” and all that.

Looks like the specific design in this video is being sold here, but if you’d prefer something that isn’t behind a pay wall there’s a few options (like this one).

Side rant: I’m all for people getting compensation for creative work but I feel like it’s wrong to put the source file behind a waywall instead of simply selling the actual print directly to people that don’t have access to a printer, that seems much more fair imo

I mean that’s kinda the whole deal with 3d printing, it’s useful for really niche applications where you can just add a small amount of convenience to your life.

Someone else commented about this being good for school kids so they can safely make cat scratchers to donate to animal shelters, and as a cat owner with a constant pile of recycling I can see this being actually useful if I wanna avoid spending $20-$40 on one of those fancier cardboard cat scratchers from Target or whatever.

They could’ve so easily solved this by making it just immediately jump to the search bar on tap, or hide that feature behind a long press like some other apps do if they’re really wanting to push people towards trending searches. I appreciate that it’s within thumb’s reach now but this is a pretty lackluster implementation