AWESOMENESS * 99^9999999!!! Meets Douchebaggery.

[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. 

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...g_room/areopagitica/

DUM Dum dum...

Enter, the douchebaggery!

http://www.wired.com...2/10/3d-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.

But, it gets worse...

http://betabeat.com/...ody-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.”

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

AND...

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

 

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

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

http://www.dartmouth...g_room/areopagitica/

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

[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.c...ayer_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.in...9uoJ8CmamrdVz9o8fAEa

[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)

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

[Stoic Joker]

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)

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

-Renegade (October 03, 2012, 11:57 AM)

The mere appearance of impropriety is enough to send some scampering back into the shadows as if they were burned by flame.

[wraith808]

The mere appearance of impropriety is enough to send some scampering back into the shadows as if they were burned by flame.

-Stoic Joker (October 03, 2012, 12:02 PM)

Exactly.  Especially in this increasingly litigious society.

[vlastimil]

When I see stuff like this, my only thought is: Humans really need to go to Mars and establish a permanent colony there. One way, no return module, just pick a few volunteers and keep sending more and more people and material to them. Forget the return capsule. They can return when they build their own rockets.

[Renegade]

When I see stuff like this, my only thought is: Humans really need to go to Mars and establish a permanent colony there. One way, no return module, just pick a few volunteers and keep sending more and more people and material to them. Forget the return capsule. They can return when they build their own rockets.

-vlastimil (October 03, 2012, 12:32 PM)

That kind of draws out the point of:

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Their target platform for their designs.

From the page:

RepRap is humanity's first general-purpose self-replicating manufacturing machine.

RepRap takes the form of a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap prints those parts, RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself - a kit that anyone can assemble given time and materials. It also means that - if you've got a RepRap - you can print lots of useful stuff, and you can print another RepRap for a friend...

Like I said before -  AWESOMENESS * 99^9999999!!!

[vlastimil]

Yes, the self-replication is pretty awesome, but I guess it will take a while until it will be able to print out functional microchips and other electronic parts.

What I also meant was that the social environment on Earth is becoming more and more volatile and that it would be much safer if there were someone on Mars if Earth goes to hell.