NSW, Australia, criminalises the possession of 3D printable gun designs.

Ach! That was meant to go to comp.misc. Sorry.

Sylvia.

Easy way to bypass it is to create a server-client pair that interface between the os running the machine and the data stored somewhere else. Slave the printer/mill to the server and get it to issue the commands to the client printer/mill.

Somehow I just don't like the direction in which Australia is moving.

conduct for the public benefit -------------- ^ This!

joe

Just to be safe, they should outlaw owning or storing pictures of guns. Ditto movies that show guns. Or web access to patents that involve guns.

Pardon my French, but WTF is happening to Australia? Permits and registration and end use reqirements for mW class "prohibited weapon" laser pointers and criminal charges for posession of CAM files?

But no permits for all the venomous snikes?

--sp

This reminds me of when the US passed the DMCA that outlawed a small piece of code required to use DVD drives under Linux. It was distilled to just a handful of lines of code and printed on t-shirts.

I really, really, want to get some 3D printable gun designs and start emailing them to NSW legislators. Endlessly. So they'll be in violation as soon as their law goes into effect.

Yeah, that's a rational act.

No - they stick these defenses in to make it look superficially reasonable. Then they define "public benefit" very narrowly:

"Conduct is of public benefit if, and only if, the conduct is necessary for or of assistance in: (a) enforcing or administering a law of the State, or of another State, Territory or the Commonwealth, or (b) monitoring compliance with, or investigating a contravention of, a law of the State, or of another State, a Territory or the Commonwealth, or (c) the administration of justice."

Sylvia

Hey - Australian legislators don't need any help when it comes to devising absurd laws - they have plenty of experience already.

Sylvia.

It's a question I've asked myself. It beggars belief that such a laid-back society has managed to turn into this.

Sylvia.

I presume its quite ok to own a file, a hacksaw, a drill, and a welder, plus assorted bits of steel. In which case it takes about a week to make a gun from scratch. A pencil and paper will do for design tools. No fancy 3D printer or computer needed.

That'll certainly make us safer from pictures of guns or movies about guns. It won't help against real guns, however.

Civil disobedience is a time honored tactic against such nonsense.

Tony Abbott was a right-wing nitwit's right-wing nitwit, and having him as party leader and prime minister empowered the Liberal Party's lunatic fring e.

Malcolm Turnbull had to buy off the far-right faction in order to be able t o boot Abbott out, and it will take a while before they all shoot themselve s in their feet or get caught with brown-paper bags full of cash. Bronwyn B ishop managed to organise her own debacle, but not every right-thinking pol itician is quite that half-witted.

Yeah well they can't do that. And most of them form what I read, are happy with being neutered. And their owners are so much happier with how much better they obey now.

"Schedule 1 [7] inserts proposed sections 51F and 51G into the Firearms

Perhaps, but this sort of thing has been going on for a while now.

Sylvia.

Still... I presume that there was/is a (general) ban on guns. Did they trip over their feet with attempts to define "3D gun(s)"? Did they trip over their feet in attempt(s) to define "digital blueprint(s)"? What about "innocent"? Etc?

Now if there is no (general) ban on guns, they blew it; one could make and/or own a gun that was made by conventional method(s) but NOT by "printing" or auto-milling. You see the stupidity.

Guns aren't banned, but you need a license - and a reason - to own one.

Not obviously, but it's clearly a poorly thought-out catch-all provision.

Probably not, but thinking that everything that gets onto your hard disk was put there by intention is a trifle unrealistic.

It's an excuse, but a rather closely drawn one.

There isn't a general ban, but you do need a license if you want to own one.

Not without a license.

Sadly, the stupidity is pretty much all yours. A simple google search with the search string "Gun ownership in NSW" throws this up

You were clearly too stupid to bother looking.