<p>This site may attract questions such as</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Is it legal to sell 3D printed objects from a model repository?</p></li>
<li><p>Are 3D printed guns legal in my jurisdiction?</p></li>
<li><p>If my custom-built printer sets my house on fire, does the insurance cover it?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Are such questions allowed on this site, or should they be redirected to a site dealing more commonly with laws?</p>

[{'answer_id': 33, 'author': 'Tom van der Zanden', 'author_id': 26, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Yes, such questions should be on-topic. There can be partial overlap in sites' scopes, and unique legal issues involving 3D printing can be addressed here. Users of this site are more likely to have specific expertise than users on a site that deals with laws more generally.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 34, 'author': 'Tom van der Zanden', 'author_id': 26, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>No, such questions should not be allowed. This site deals only with the practical issues of 3D printing. Questions about legal issues should be redirected to sites dealing specifically with those, since users of this site do not have the expertise to address legal issues. A 3D printing expert does not make a legal expert.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 35, 'author': 'Dawny33', 'author_id': 163, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/163', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I would go with <strong>NO,</strong> as that should be dealt by law experts from the <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/">Law SE</a>, instead of 3D printing engineers and enthusiasts in this site.</p>\n\n<p>Dealing with such questions in this site, would lead to the following problems, like wrong and unreliable advice.</p>\n\n<p>So, such questions should be migrated to the Law site, IMO.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 47, 'author': 'HDE 226868', 'author_id': 61, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/61', 'pm_score': 4, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><strong>Yes - in some cases.</strong></p>\n\n<p>First, overlap between sites is fine. <em>It doesn\'t matter if a question is on topic somewhere else</em>; that\'s no reason to eliminate it from a different site\'s scope. There were some issues when HSM sprang up, because Mathematics, Physics, and other sites allowed history-related questions. I participated in several meta discussions on these sites. While Physics eventually decided to not allow history questions, Mathematics and other sites continued to allow them. So we should not make our decision based on Law.</p>\n\n<p>I do agree that, so far, the <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;legal&#39;" rel="tag">legal</a> questions have not been great. But in the future, they could be. I wrote in <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/103/is-it-legal-to-make-a-weapon-with-a-3d-printer#comment123_1030">a comment</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>I agree with @TomvanderZanden; a good case could be made for keeping this here. Laws and regulations can be a huge influence on an industry; the allowance or ban of certain products of said industry would seem to be relevant here. Remember, questions can be on-topic on multiple sites.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Regulatory measures can be extraordinarily important in a industry. If we had a site about making socks, should questions about whether or not is is legal to make socks with material X in the United States be off topic? I would argue no; this could be an important part of sock-making.</p>\n\n<p>We have the same situation here. Some <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;legal&#39;" rel="tag">legal</a> questions can be important; I would argue that questions regarding which materials and devices are legal should be ones we aim for. The legality of Filament A could be really important to a project.</p>\n\n<p>That\'s not to say that all <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;legal&#39;" rel="tag">legal</a> questions are fine. As has been said, some of the ones we\'ve had so far haven\'t been great, and I would advocate sending them to Law. But I strongly disagree that just because of the examples we\'ve seen we should not allow <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/legal" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;legal&#39;" rel="tag">legal</a> questions. There are good ones out there; we haven\'t seen their full extent yet.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 55, 'author': 'Chase Cromwell', 'author_id': 107, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/107', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I would say that <strong>they are on topic</strong> because it seems more reasonable to look for questions about the legality of 3D printing on a 3D printing site than a law site.</p>\n'}]
['https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/32', 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26/']