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Proposed Regulation Could Keep 3D-printed Gun Blueprints Offline For Good
SonicSpike sends a report on a proposed update to the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations which could shut down the sharing of files for 3D printed gun parts over the internet. "Hidden within the proposal, which restricts what gear, technology, and info can and cannot be exported out of the U.S., is a ban on posting schematics for 3D printed gun parts online." This follows a lawsuit from Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed back in May fighting the federal government's command to remove blueprints for the "Liberator" 3D-printed gun from their website. A senior official at the U.S. State Department said, "By putting up a digital file, that constitutes an export of the data. If it's an executable digital file, any foreign interests can get a hold of it."
All Constitutional issues aside (Free Speech, Prior Restraint, etc.) They can't keep details of their spying program out of the news. They expect to prevent people from exchanging these documents?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Making it illegal to transmit data put an immediate end to software piracy. I don't see why it can't work here as well.
Somebody put the genie back in the bottle!!!
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
If we start banning content because it could be a violation of INTERNATIONAL export...cue the Great US Firewall.
Proposed Regulation Could Keep 3D-printed Gun Blueprints Offline For Good
Yep. And drug laws totally eliminated illegal drugs, prostitution laws totally eliminated prostitution, etc.
Come on, people. This is the stupidest headline I've read in awhile. If laws actually had magical powers like that it would be irrelevant since there's already a law against using a gun to murder someone.
Do you have ESP?
The goal, of course, is not to prevent this stuff from getting out -- people will sneak it out trivially and host it outside the US. And state-level agency, or large terrorist organizations, could just send legal (on the surface anyway) visitors to pick it up, if they wanted to, which they don't.
The goal is to intimidate the makers of such designs. Arrest first and ask questions later, when such designs get out. I wonder how they will take that intimidation?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I don't know about that, were the ACM provisions of the DMCA (the part that in theory banned DeCSS) ever declared to be in breach of the first amendment? I recall we "lost" that legal fight, even if DeCSS's ubiquity meant it ended up being a Pyhrric victory for the DVD-CCA.
Legally I suspect they can "ban" 3D gun blueprints if stored in some computer parsable form. Practically, of course, they'll find that hard to enforce.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
This has nothing to do with guns or dicks. It's about control, the control of information that everyone already has. It's useless regulation that will end up costing billions of dollars.
Torrent Style Protocol where the parts are never fully assembled until delivered. How can you ban PART of a diagram?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
They tried this with encryption methods and the result was to simply print it out and publish it as a book, then it became an irrefutable 1st Amendment issue. Idiot politicians never learn.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
By putting up a digital file, that constitutes an export of the data. If it's an executable digital file, any foreign interests can get a hold of it."
Right. Because in countries where you can trade a goat for a fully automatic AK-47 or even an RPK, people are instead going to download and print a flimsy, crappy piece of plastic that can shoot maybe 10 rounds before blowing your hand off. And in any case, they make much better weapons in caves than what this guy is making.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
This will be extremely effective, because no other nation in the world could possibly come up with a 3D-printer blueprint for producing gun parts. :P
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
disclaimer: I am ardently anti-gun.
People will always want to 3d print a gun. In some cases 3d printing a gun or components to a firearm is an excellent idea. For example, in a rural or exurban environment where parts may be scarce, raw materials to remanufacture failing components of firearms for hunting or defense are more efficient. A farmer may be able to use the same 3d printer to rebuild a thresher, reprint a broken connector, and rebuild a rifle used for varmint hunting to protect his cattle.
there will always be bad guys. bad guys will always want to 3d print a gun that can't be traced and isn't registered. But it bares worth remembering, our present United States method of determining who is fit for ownership of a gun is basically a checklist and a phone call. Given the rash of recent mass shootings this system didn't prevent, its clearly lacking. Any attempt to regulate 3d printing of guns, should come with an overhaul of our background or application process for gun ownership. simply banning the devices, the knowledge, or their export is an ambitious but futile approach to the actual problem: wholesale gun violence in the united states as a manifestation of the permanent race based caste and class system inequality in the united states..
Good people go to bed earlier.
Good luck, Judges hate it when you try to be "clever" with tricks like that, and rarely rule in your favor. Also don't forget that the diagram is already technically broken into parts (individual bits) by virtue of being digitized and sent through the Internet anyway, so that particular attempt to circumvent a ban is unlikely to work with any law as effectively written.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
PGP: Source Code and Internals - Phil Zimmerman - books have 1A protection. So I have no doubt we'll soon see "The Liberator: Source Plans and Internals - Cody Wilson".
Also, WTF does "If it's an executable digital file, any foreign interests can get a hold of it" mean? Is ISIS unable to use non-executable files?
When do we get the indelible internet?
The 1st amendment is only bullet proof with the 2nd amendment... Well that and the rest of the bill of rights....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
That should take care of it once and for all then. Glad that's resolved. (insert obligatory face-palm here)
Well, the people receiving those billions of dollars won't find the regulations so useless then, will they?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
With massive unemployment and young men and women looking to start a new career; there will be plenty of opportunities to work for oppressive regimes at curtailing freedom for the established ruling elite. It's like the intellectual and societal form of the broken window fallacy.
World war can't come soon enough!
Life is not for the lazy.
Hitler is recent enough that there are people alive that remember him. But yeah, you want more recent example, why are we negotiating with Iran? And would you agree that getting a signed piece of paper from them is as meaningless as the piece of paper Chamberlain got from Hitler?
The fact is, no totalitarian regime ever had a second amendment style freedom. And the fact is, you can't name even one, so you pick a less substantial point out to make it seem more reasonable to be on your side of the argument. It isn't. There will always be Chamberlains getting pieces of paper from despots who have no intention of honoring them.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Doesn't work with non metal parts...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Eunuch has a dick, just no balls
Kind of like Hillary.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I'm not looking for a weapon. I'm looking for a shield to neutralize it.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
So two people, independently, publish files of random numbers.
It just so happens that when the two files are XORed together you get the plans for a gun (or any other "restricted" file)
Who are you going to prosecute? After all, anybody can publish files of random numbers. Only one of the two needs to be "constructed" and it's impossible to determine which one is the "artificial" one.
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = -@B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t," and there was light.
If I put out plans for a screw or a pin, is that a gun part? A tube? A box? Spring?
Would the trigger on plans for a garden sprayer be illegal?
Real programmers use "copy con program.exe"
To distribute the blame so they can all point to each other.
Anti-gunners seem to boil down defensive gun uses to winning and losing.
An armed population is a deterrence. There is a reason why many mass shootings happen at schools. They are completely disarmed soft targets. Shooters know there won't be anyone to shoot back at them.
I guarantee a mass shooter will move much more slowly and carefully if even ONE person shoots back. It's human nature. Slowing a mass shooter is one way to save lives - you don't need to hit the guy between the eyes for there to be a benefit.
This has nothing to do specifically with guns, 3D or otherwise.
This appears to be a change to ITAR to define making files available for download as part of the law. This has long been a work-around that multiple people in my company at least have pointed out was stupid during ITAR training: If I install software on my laptop I have to go through ITAR with it, but if I leave it on a server at work and access it remotely from Europe, not ITAR. There are still laws, mind you, but they are different laws. Fixing this, while annoying to some, at least makes the law make a bit more sense.
So where do guns come into this? As near as I can tell, only because this story is on Fox news, and they can't get their 80-to-dead audience excited about "Obummer" by griping about internet files.
Political clickbait.
"He has said in the past that the "Liberator " project was intended to highlight how technology can render laws and governments all but irrelevant."
So we have a self professed anarchist being ardently defended by some who feel his constitutional rights are being trampled. Can I see that definition of irony again?
How about this? How about poor little plastic gun dude simply offering to send his digital drawings to anyone he wants via email? Too simple? No , that wouldn't get him the repeated click bait articles he gets.That wouldn't make governments and laws irrelevant would it. No, that would simply allow him to distribute his drawings to every single person within the US. That would be bad, very, very bad. Right?
Instead let us boldly move towards a world without government and laws where every little freak can do whatever they want without 'fear' of government restrictions.
This idiot just makes it harder for gun owners like me to tell people that I like and own guns.