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from the now-it's-Defense...Disturbed? dept.
Trump deal to share 3D-printed gun blueprints online ruled 'unlawful'
A federal judge has struck down a decision by the Trump administration to allow blueprints for 3D-printed guns to be shared online.
In a ruling published Tuesday, Judge Robert Lasnik said the deal made in July last year was "arbitrary and capricious" and thus a violation of the federal Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution.
The original deal was part of a settlement between the Justice Department and Texas-based nonprofit Defense Distributed, which garnered worldwide attention in 2013 with its claims to have created the world's first "100 percent 3D-printed gun." The dissemination of plans for the gun was blocked by the Obama administration, but last year Defense Distributed successfully sued the government and had the ban reversed, arguing that it was a free speech violation.
[...] Bloomberg notes that the decision may still have limitations, given that Defense Distributed worked around a previous, temporary ban on downloading plans by simply mailing blueprints directly to customers. Said [spokesperson Chad] Flores: "The speech these states want so badly to censor is already on the internet and always will be."
Also at Bloomberg, NYT, and CBS.
Previously: Landmark Legal Shift for 3D-Printed Guns
[Updated] Defense Distributed Releasing Gun Plans, President Trump "Looking Into" It
Federal Judge Imposes Preliminary Injunction Against Defense Distributed's DEFCAD
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Thursday November 14 2019, @12:24PM (11 children)
Gun control is one thing. That operates at the material level. But this censorship of mere plans-- even apart from the infringement on our freedoms, do authorities seriously expect that to be effective? Law enforcers are always pushing the boundaries on this stuff, and their zealousness has to be constantly checked.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @01:51PM (2 children)
Keep telling yourself that red neck nutbar.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @03:05PM
The sheer amount of evidence you provided and the eloquent rebuttal of the OP's statements have instantly converted me to your beliefs and way of thinking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 16 2019, @06:46PM
in case you're not just trolling. go read the federalist papers and learn what the 2a is actually for and what arms The People are supposed to have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday November 14 2019, @02:39PM (5 children)
Indeed.
(Score: 1, Troll) by exaeta on Thursday November 14 2019, @02:51PM (4 children)
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @04:32PM (3 children)
Some parts of government are evil.
Maybe we should bring back "conservatives are literally nazis" if you want to play that dumb absolutist game.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 15 2019, @01:44AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 15 2019, @06:23AM (1 child)
In the "off-season" now, are we, khallow? Nothing to do, but foment Vienna Circle libertatianism until the snow melts and the passes open in the spring? Living off of socialist "unemployment insurance", are we? Unemployment from your "Deep State" contracting job? Q is on to you!!!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 15 2019, @02:11PM
For what it's worth, I'm not, but I could be. One can collect unemployment insurance for being between seasonal employment.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday November 14 2019, @05:34PM
I don't think so. I think it is a mixture of virtue signaling and working to overturn the 2A the hard way -- one person at a time.
A non-violent felony will cause a person to lose their gun rights for life.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 14 2019, @07:14PM
This should have been a slam dunk case but the Trump admin is such a bunch lying incompetents the judge was forced to throw it out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @02:34PM (5 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @03:16PM (1 child)
They only have to put a few like you in jail for 20 years for that to stop.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @05:14PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Thursday November 14 2019, @03:43PM (2 children)
I'm assuming there's a magnet link available somewhere for the files?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @04:24PM
Just search for "fosscad".
(Score: 4, Informative) by ncc74656 on Thursday November 14 2019, @06:03PM
They're still available through GitHub, surprisingly:
https://github.com/maduce/fosscad-repo [github.com]
You'll also find some other interesting stuff on LBRY:
https://open.lbry.com/@Deterrence-Dispensed [lbry.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @03:49PM (1 child)
I don't remember a federal judge from the opposing party being assigned to impede every aspect of the current government's policy in previous administrations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 14 2019, @04:00PM
america is a communist country.
(Score: 2) by mobydisk on Thursday November 14 2019, @06:48PM (2 children)
Aren't the plans for actual guns readily available from the USPTO since they are patented? All patent filings are public domain. I thought that most guns sold today were based on famous designs by people like Samuel Colt and Mikhail Kalashnikov, and the patents have expired. Gun manufacturers take those open-source plans and make their own variations of them. Why would a plastic gun design be any different? Is there a process to "hide" a patent from the patent office web site? [uspto.gov]
(Score: 2) by Spook brat on Thursday November 14 2019, @08:10PM (1 child)
Most, yes. The Defense Distributed plans probably aren't. There's a remote chance of them being licensed creative commons something-or-other, but since Cody didn't plan to prevent others from building or selling them there would be no point in filing for a patent.
Also, if you look at the design files for the 3d-printed plastic gun Cody designed it's obvious that it's not a modification of a metal gun design. Working around the barrel/chamber size required to hold and fire the round forced lots of changes to the design of the rest of the gun. Patentable, yeah maybe; patented, probably not.
tl;dr: the way to hide an invention from the uspto is to never file an application.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Thursday November 14 2019, @08:53PM
The license for the DD files noted on defcad is GPL v3.0: https://github.com/DefiantCad/defcad-repo [github.com] That includes the original Liberator. I'm not easily finding what license Cody Wilson initially used, but given his anarchic views and his multiple public statements about "releasing them to the public domain(*)" -- the license is sure to be permissive in nature, although whether the files were donated to the copyright-public-domain space or not isn't clear to me.
(*) It's hard to tell if by "public domain" Wilson meant the copyright type, or the definition of public domain from ITAR: https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/cody-wilson-itar-state-department-liberator-supreme-court-gun-control/ [dailydot.com]
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday November 15 2019, @02:47AM
Wasn't this the gun that has a reasonable chance of blowing up in your hand? So an active mass shooter might off himself before the police even get there?