The folks at CNN fell for the hype from a project called RepRap, a rapid prototyper from the University of Bath in England. (The picture is from the CNN story and shows a robot built with RepRap.)

The machine that can copy anything was their breathless headline.

Well, yes. And no.

The folks at RepRap would like you to think they've got something truly revolutionary. But they don't. The technology has been around for some time. You need to input a lot of files to make anything, so there's a lot of intellectual capital involved.

And here's the kicker.

It's a prototyper.

It makes one of something. It's not a mass production device. It makes one of something, out of plastic.

You're not going to get rich making one of something. You get rich making a lot of something.

RepRap does not claim the machine scales.

Look at their blog, for gosh sakes. It's just one click away from the main site. They're still working on designs of individual components.

Certainly if you're an inventor something like this will be cool. You can get a copy of what you're talking about to the Patent Office, which will make getting a patent easier.

But it's not a factory.