14 yrs in prison for possessing 3d printing gun files

[taliv]

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/589484/nsw-bans-possession-blueprints-3d-printing-firearms/

in New South Wales

'Possession' is defined as "possession of a computer or data storage device holding or containing the blueprint or of a document in which the blueprint is recorded" or "control of the blueprint held in a computer that is in the possession of another person (whether the computer is in this jurisdiction or outside this jurisdiction)".

so even if you kept the document on a server out of the country...
that's like saying a CA resident couldn't own a firearm in storage in NV

"Those who think they can skirt the law will find themselves facing some of the toughest penalties for firearms offences in this country," Grant said.

In 2013 the NSW Police issued a warning about the potential of 3D printed firearms to catastrophically misfire.

The police revealed that they had created and tested two 3D-printed firearms based on the the Liberator pistol blueprints produced by US-firm Defense Distributed.

odd that they would make what is essentially possession of INFORMATION a tougher penalty than possession of an actual physical functioning firearm

 

[jerkface11]

Will Australian law allow them to prosecute you for contraband you own that isn't in the country?

 

[mavracer]

In order to truly ban something you're gonna need to ban the knowledge of it's existence. They should have society back to cave man days before long.

 

[hso]

Having the information needed to produce a firearm is going to be a crime whether you produce one or not? So, they're sliding towards the Orwellian Thought Police model? How do they intend to treat firearms designers, licensing? Madness!

 

[yugorpk]

Its Britain. Lost cause.

 

[taliv]

hso, i believe the article said they excluded licensed firearms manufacturers, but i don't have a high level of confidence that a computer magazine would report the legal nuances accurately. you'd still have all sorts of issues, like cloud storage and offsite backups, etc. so it's still madness for sure

and is it just "3d printers" and if so how do they define them so that they don't also criminalize to the code for CNC machines?

is it so broad that someone who manufactures parts for a gun, like say, a licensed manufacturer jobs out a small part like a bolt or pin or something and provides an electronic blueprint... did the subs just earn a 14 year vacation?

 

[Deanimator]

It's Australia. They simply don't have the same rights codified in law and constitution that we do.

And don't forget, this is what BOTH Obama and Clinton want for us.

 

[TruthTellers]

This is one of the reasons I've always been against gun banning: because you can never eliminate the knowledge it takes to make one. It's the same with nuclear weapons: you can deactivate them, but there will always be people who know how to make them and be exploited or forced by others.

This here is making thought and knowledge illegal and punishable. So in the future are they going to start arresting people who know how to sharpen sticks? Australia goes on the slow march to Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Let's keep this madness quarantined to that island.

 

[jmorris]

If blueprints are illegal it's just a matter of time before they will arrest you for having an idea.

 

[barnbwt]

TT, the allegory you are looking for is called Anthem and is in many ways much darker than 1984 (figuratively and literally)

 

[armabill]

So the police violated their own laws?

 

[lemaymiami]

Folks in this country take for granted the freedoms we enjoy.... Other countries (even otherwise civilized places )have much different views. I'd love to visit down under (and New Zealand would be even better -but anyone going there had better read up on their weapons laws....

When I was in uniform all those years ago you could tell which tourists were from places where even the cops were unarmed -it was that obvious.

 

[goon]

Once you've seen the most basic examples or a youtube video on the STEN, you understand the basic principle of making a gun. Will they also track your browsing and prosecute you for what you read? Man, that's sad.

 

[MechAg94]

Maybe someone over there could get someone from another country to email the blueprints/code to all the politicians and police officers over there. Maybe figure out how to place it on their personal/public servers. Then file complaints against them all.

It probably wouldn't work. Also, ITAR regs might get in the way here.

 

[barnbwt]

"ITAR regs might get in the way here."

Yeah, we really don't have much place to judge, this being the US, after all...the recent ITAR proposal puts essentially the same technical information on the ITAR Defense Articles list (and for similar reasons), making it unlawful to post it publicly (on the internet specifically, as of the change) where foreign nationals or domestic folks who haven't been briefed on ITAR requirements (my sig line, obviously facetious, is basically what the 'official' placards read)

TCB

 

[joem1945]

I wonder what those folks will do if a group of terrorists get there and pull off a paris style attack. How do politicians like these get elected?

 

[ontarget]

What do you mean how do they get elected? Ask your next door neighbor. They get elected every cycle here too. Lucky for us we have a Constitution standing in there way. For now at least......

 

[goon]

Yeah. I bet banning 3d schematics of guns and sentencing regular people to 14 years each will make all the difference...

 

[TwoEyedJack]

Wouldn't it be fun to anonymously e-mail the files to every member of the NSW Legislative Assembly then tattle on them?

 

[Carl N. Brown]

One of the points of the 3D printed gun was to show how ridiculous gun laws were.

Frankly, I could (if I wanted to) make a zip gun of a block of wood, seamless tube, a nail, a piece of wood, sheet metal, and spring or rubber band, quicker and cheaper than printing that 3D printer pistol.

Punishing possession of thing, rather than an over act against others, is what makes gun laws look stupid. Punishing possession of knowledge of how to make the thing, makes gun laws look insane.

 

[Devonai]

It sounds to me like simply having internet access is constructive possession. They should arrest themselves, the entire population of the country, and the rest of the world save for the Sentinelese.

 

[HammsBeer]

The original Liberator from WWII is proof enough that you can make all the gun laws you want, but anyone with some sheet metal and a welder (or a small cnc today) can make an untraceable firearm, defeating any government monopoly on weapons possession.

 

[MechAg94]

Yeah, we really don't have much place to judge, this being the US, after all...the recent ITAR proposal puts essentially the same technical information on the ITAR Defense Articles list (and for similar reasons), making it unlawful to post it publicly (on the internet specifically, as of the change) where foreign nationals or domestic folks who haven't been briefed on ITAR requirements (my sig line, obviously facetious, is basically what the 'official' placards read)

TCB

I wasn't trying to draw comparrisons. Just pointing out that it may be illegal to email them the schematics from the US. Someone might say you were "exporting" technology.

I like the point above about internet access being constructive possession. It would likely be easy for a hacker to place the illegal files on the servers of all the politicians and police. That is likely the best way to point out the insanity of this.

 

[Kaeto]

The original Liberator from WWII is proof enough that you can make all the gun laws you want, but anyone with some sheet metal and a welder (or a small cnc today) can make an untraceable firearm, defeating any government monopoly on weapons possession.

I have copies of the blueprints for that.

 

[raubvogel]

I wonder if in order to enforce that Australian law the government would be able to performa random checks at any time of the day on everyone's hard drives -- politicians and celebrities excluded of course -- to make sure they do not have anything illegal. Which would require the government to have (backdoor) access to everyone's homes.

And maybe they will offer rewards for those who report on others.