3D Printing and Digital Shipping

3D printing is a technology from the early twenty first century, and the primary technology for creating tools locally with local raw materials. Although it is technically a method of local on-demand production, it's commonly called "digital shipping" because it uses a digital file to recreate an object, and that digital file--along with a license to use the design--is what is transferred.

Typically, 3D printer files contain an array of possible materials to be used for different components, along with design stresses or other points of special interest. This allows for many versions of the same thing to be produced, depending on the available resources.

Exceptions
Most clothing, Food products, medical products or drugs, and computer or superconducting technology products cannot be shipped digitally because all of these require molecular or near-molecular control, and technology products require specific materials to function correctly. While theoretically food and medical products can be reproduced with an chemical synthesizer, additional conventional printers and interplanetary shipping is much more practical. Some more crude articles of clothing can be shipped digitally, and there are several artificial leather formulas, but woven fabrics such as spider silk suit liners cannot.

The end result is a balancing act: some products can be locally produced, some cannot. Space colonies generally interact with the larger solar system economy by exporting one of the exceptions to 3D printing, usually a food item or technology products.

The Open Object Community
As that most products are too simple to warrant having licenses, most communities rely on tables of Open Source Objects, which have free licenses. The materials to produce them, of course, are not free, and professional printers often take a small fee, but the designs for most household products and simpler tools are open object.

Licence Piracy
Digital piracy has been a problem ever since the computer was invented, and this has become more prevalent as the computer has grown more able. Objects which are illegal, such as Thorium to Plutonium breeding reactors, can be digitally distributed. Furthermore, legitimate items can be pirated. On the whole, though, the inexpensiveness of most licenses means that virtually all production is legal. Pirates usually want to obtain something purely because it is illegal.