Legal problems showing a way to do business

Bitcoin

The government cares a lot about its money, especially when it can be converted into Bitcoin, the digital anonymous currency, and taken off the radar to be sent anywhere without anyone's identity attached to it.

The Feds are still figuring out how to address Bitcoin. In the meantime, many marketplaces legitimate and illegitimate alike will gladly take the currency as payment for everything from socks to drugs.

3D Printing

Many were raising a stink late last year about Defense Distributed, a nonprofit organization committed to designing a functioning gun that one could hypothetically make at home with a 3D printer. It presents something of a problem to lawmakers how do you make sure guns are being used safely when they can be manufactured in someone's garage without serial numbers or accountability? The city of Philadelphia has already issued a ban on 3D printed weapons, so look for this ban to become a trend.

But that's not the only legal implication of 3D printing. Given the ability to manifest pretty much any object you can conceive of, 3D printers also have copyright zealots up in arms about potential infringement. The famous example here is found in Warhammer40K, a tabletop wargame played with small figures that are most certainly protected under intellectual property laws. But with a 3D scanner and printer, it becomes a cinch to clone your figures at a fraction of the price you'd pay to buy them at a store. Is this legal or illegal?

These are just three examples of how technology is outpacing the law, and given the current rate at which people are churning out newer and better gadgets to expand our capabilities, lawmakers will continue to have to play catchup.