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AWESOMENESS * 99^9999999!!! Meets Douchebaggery.

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Renegade:
I just saw an amazingly inspiring video about creating information and giving it to people. Really, it is a must watch for anyone interested in censorship or freedom of speech.

Short version - these guys are producing CAD designs for weapons to distribute for free. They of course must encounter douchebaggery for developing and planning to distribute information, because as we all know, ignorance is strength...

And, they're working on all free software packages.  :up:

http://defensedistributed.com/



The "Manifesto":

http://defensedistributed.com/manifesto/

Quotes from Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, H.L. Mencken
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”

“The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;…”

– Thomas Jefferson


“Whoever considers the unprincipled enemy we have to to cope with, will not hesitate to declare that nothing but arms or miracles can reduce them to reason and moderation.”

– Thomas Paine


“The great object is that every man be armed … Everyone who is able may have a gun.”

– Patrick Henry


“I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman’s club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.”

– H.L. Mencken

For the Liberty of unlicenc'd Printing.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica/



DUM Dum dum...

Enter, the douchebaggery!

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/3d-gun-blocked/

3-D Printer Company Seizes Machine From Desktop Gunsmith

Cody Wilson planned in the coming weeks to make and test a 3-D printed pistol. Now those plans have been put on hold as desktop-manufacturing company Stratasys pulled the lease on a printer rented out for Wiki Weapon, the internet project lead by Wilson and dedicated to sharing open-source blueprints for 3-D printed guns. Stratasys even sent a team to seize the printer from Wilson’s home.

“They came for it straight up,” Cody Wilson, director of Defense Distributed, the online collective that oversees the Wiki project, tells Danger Room. “I didn’t even have it out of the box.” Wilson, who is a second-year law student at the University of Texas at Austin, had leased the printer earlier in September after his group raised $20,000 online. As well as using the funds to build a pistol, the Wiki Weapon project aimed to eventually provide a platform for anyone to share 3-D weapons schematics online. Eventually, the group hoped, anyone could download the open source blueprints and build weapons at home.
--- End quote ---

But, it gets worse...

http://betabeat.com/2012/09/wiki-weapon-project-3d-printed-gun-defense-distributed-cody-wilson-09042012/

Wiki Weapon Project Continues to Raise Money for 3D Printed Guns via PayPal and Bitcoin

A couple of weeks ago we told you about the Wiki Weapon Project, the brainchild of a group called Defense Distributed that was initially raising money on Indiegogo to develop open source blueprints for a 3D-printable gun. Indiegogo suspended the campaign and refunded all the backers, but never gave an explicit reason for doing so.

“I put in the basic appeal with Indiegogo once they sent me the email that all of our funds were being refunded to contributors,” Cody Wilson, a student at the University of Texas School of Law and cofounder of Defense Distributed, told Betabeat by email. “I got a thank you and a help ticket, but no word back. Basically TOS violation is the reason I think they’re sticking with.”

Betabeat reached out to Indiegogo at the time, but still hasn’t heard back. It does seem that the Wiki Weapon project violates at least one term, though it gets a little definitionally murky:

You may not use the Service for activities that:

(h) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories

But the fundraising setback has not deterred Defense Distributed. Mr. Wilson said that in the days since Indiegogo canceled the campaign, “Wiki Weapon project has received $12k, as well as the promise from one angel investor to match all contributions received above $10k dollar to dollar. There are some big offers potentially coming down in the week upcoming as well. We’ve begun prototyping as well.”
--- End quote ---

They are producing plans for distribution... not weapons for distribution. Big difference. 

AND...

For all those out there poo-pooing on Bitcoin...

:P  :harhar: :tease: ;D

And for those looking for something to do with their Bitcoins, there ya go~! You don't even need to look for pron~! ;D

Anyways, this all goes back to speech, information and freedom. From the link in the Manifesto:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica/

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

--- End quote ---

Renegade:
For anyone wanting to just skip to the really good stuff in the video, use this link as it's cued up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ6Q3BfbVBU&feature=player_embedded#t=353s

wraith808:
Interesting... they have a bitcoin address to donate to... never knew you could see the transactions freely for bitcoins:

http://blockchain.info/address/1Gb5GNxrVGMT8e9uoJ8CmamrdVz9o8fAEa

wraith808:
I think their biggest problem was that they were too open with the wrong information.  If he had not *named* the printer company, I don't think they would have come after him.  It's the *knowingly* part that got him in trouble.

Renegade:
I think their biggest problem was that they were too open with the wrong information.  If he had not *named* the printer company, I don't think they would have come after him.  It's the *knowingly* part that got him in trouble.
-wraith808 (October 03, 2012, 11:53 AM)
--- End quote ---

Perhaps. They could just as well ignored him though. He's not doing anything illegal.

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