For those in the US with a combined interest in 3D-Printers, intersections of the 1st and 2nd Amendments, and legal precedents; Cody Wilson has been fighting the US Government for half a decade.
Short version: after Wilson uploaded his 3D pistol plans to his site, over 100,000 people downloaded it - this drew the attention of the US authorities, who tried to use the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to force a take-down.
The authorities argued that by posting the 3D printer plans for a firearm, Mr. Wilson was effectively exporting firearms, and subject to federal regulation. Eventually the Department of Justice dropped the case, paving the way for DIY'ers to publish such things freely.
The article cites 'promises' made by DoJ to move the regulations to another department.
Wired's article: A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora's Box for DIY Guns (archive)
Related: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home
Japanese Gun Printer Goes to Jail
Suspected 3D-Printed Gun Parts and Plastic Knuckles Seized in Australia
FedEx Refuses to Ship Defense Distributed's Ghost Gunner CNC Mill
Man Who Used CNC Mill to Manufacture AR-15 "Lowers" Sentenced to 41 Months
Ghost Gunner Software Update Allows the Milling of an M1911 Handgun
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Friday July 13 2018, @06:08AM (1 child)
No, it did not. Neither photocopiers nor laser printers were widely available USSR time. Not in the other East European countries in the communist block.
Photocopiers were massive, required special technician maintenance** and the access to them was heavily controlled.
To even own a mechanical typing machine, one needed to go and register it with the police.
** (for in 1984, 5 years before the fall of communism, an HP laserjet [wikipedia.org] was "sold for $3500,[12] had trouble with even small, low resolution graphics, and weighed 32 kg (71 lb)."
Really, what alternate reality are you living in? Handwritten and low tech info exchange was the norm at those time [wikipedia.org].
Wanna see the "walkman" of those times in USSR? Here's an example [reverb.com].
VCR? Not in the private ownership, unless you were the progeny of a apparatchik of above medium level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 13 2018, @03:12PM
Off topic: I heard that Xerox service people dressed like spies would service equipment in the Soviet Union and plant and retrieve bugging devices on equipment used at *cough* certain *cough* locations.
Satin worshipers are obsessed with high thread counts because they have so many daemons.