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Replicators might not necessarily be banned, but some sort of cultural obsession with IP laws (not too far removed from current society) means that the vast majority of all things are illegal to replicate because they're owned by people and corporations. Replicators themselves included.

Or replicators are on a pay by use basis, where public replicator booths construct items with prices based on the complexity of the item, brand name, etc.
The rich would of course have their own private replicators.

Yeah, your personal ultraCNC shop, plug it into a fusion reactor and it builds whatever you want for whatever EULA you go with.

I could see replicators easily working in Ferengi society the same way an app store works. Basically if you want to replicate anything you have to pay for it, since anything the Ferengi make would be owned by someone who has a patent. It's simple. Replicate a cup of coffee? Pay 75 cents. And then the Ferengi who upload information to replicators would have to pay the replicator companies a fee, and the company gets like 10% off the top.

Jeremy wrote:I thought DS9's take on the Ferengi did a lot to improve the species' image.

Thinking about that, I did like Quark; and it was kind of understood that him, and by extension his immediate family, were not necessarily what one would think of as the ideal Ferengi. That seemed to bother Quark (Rom and Nog less so, especially later), and so he kept trying to follow the expected path to profit.

It was also good to see a Ferengi mercenary who didn't give a damn about latinum. The only problem was the comedic angle got pushed a bit too much and too often even when they did have some good ideas. A shame really, DS9 could have been a chance to reintroduce the Ferengi and make them a more legitimate adversary for the other Alpha quadrant powers.