The US State Department has ordered Defence Distributed to remove online blueprints for the 3D printable handgun they created, telling founder Cody Wilson it does not comply with arms export control laws.
According to the State Department of Defence Trade Controls, by uploading the weapons files to the internet and allowing them to be downloaded abroad the company contravened International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
A letter written to Defence Distributed reads: “Until the Department provides Defence Distributed with final [commodity jurisdiction] determinations, Defence Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled.
“This means that all data should be removed from public access immediately. Defence Distributed should review the remainder of the data made public on its website to determine whether any other data may be similarly controlled and proceed according to ITAR requirements.”
Speaking to Forbes, Wilson said: “We have to comply. All such data should be removed from public access, the letter says. That might be an impossible standard. But we’ll do our part to remove it from our servers.”
p>Defence Distributed will only be censored in the US, but some of the 10,000 downloads already stored by the outspoken Kim Dotcom, through his New Zealand-based Mega, can still be accessed.
Copies of the printable gun can also be accessed on The Pirate Bay, a censorship-resistant file sharing site.
Wilson has also argued that Defence Distributed is excluded from ITAR regulations under an exemption for non-profit public domain release of technical files designed to create a safe harbour for research and other public interest activities.
This exemption, he says, allows the company to store the files online because the regulations require the files be stored in a library or bookstore, with the company arguing the internet is a library.
Wilson adds that the files are available for sale in a bookstore in Texas.
HumanIPO interviewed Wilson in November when he said one of his reasons for putting the prints online was to stop politicians being able to determine who should be allowed to own guns.
Reiterating this stance, he added: “Is this a workable regulatory regime? Can there be defence trade control in the era of the Internet and 3D printing?”
Defence Distributed received a licence to manufacture guns in November last year.
