Mr. Wilson (Photo: Wikipedia)

Defense Distributed, the Texas-based nonprofit that wants to empower people to 3D print their own guns, has hit a bit of a legal snag. According to founder Cody Wilson, DEFCAD, the open source weapon-printing project powered by Defense Distributed, received a letter (embedded below) from the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Compliance, telling him to remove the blueprints of the Liberator, his 3D printed gun, from the web so that they may be reviewed by the department.

The group's website currently has a red banner appended to the top that reads, "DEFCAD files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls.  Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information."

"We got an official letter from the Secretary of State, telling me who they were, what their authority was under U.S. law and telling me they want to review these files to see if they’re class one munitions," Mr. Wilson told Betabeat by phone. "That includes blueprints."

In the letter, embedded below, the State Department says that Defense Distributed may have released data that is controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulation without getting prior authorization. This would put the company's actions in conflict with--oh boy--the Arms Export Control Act.

"Please note that disclosing (including oral or visual disclosure) or transferring technical data to a foreign person, whether in the United States or abroad, is considered an export," reads the letter. It also says that until Defense Distributed has received the legal all-clear, the company "should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled. This means that all such data should be removed from public access immediately."

Mr. Wilson believes that he is immune to the Department of State's review procedures as Defense Distributed is a nonprofit and the blueprints are protected under the public domain.

"I immediately complied and I've taken down the files," Mr. Wilson said. "But this is a much bigger deal than guns. It has implications for the freedom of the web."

Of course, since this is the Internet, the files are already all over the web, even though Mr. Wilson complied with the takedown.

"I still think we win in the end," he added. "Because the files are all over the Internet, the Pirate Bay has it--to think this can be stopped in any meaningful way is to misunderstand what the future of distributive technologies is about."

Letter from Department of State to Defense Distributed

(Photo: MakerBot)

After the events in Newtown, the gun control debate has taken on a new urgency. Suddenly 3D-printed firearms look a lot less like a thought-provoking experiment and more like a danger to the public--and Makerbot wants nothing to do with that.

CNET reports that just yesterday, it was possible to get the blueprints for the lower receiver of an AR15 semiautomatic rifle on Makerbot's wiki Thingiverse. Today, there's nothing but this listing where the downloads used to be. It's part of a wider crackdown across the site on 3D-printed weapon parts.

A spokesperson pointed CNET towards the site's Terms of Service:

Thingiverse's Terms of Service state that users agree not to use Thingiverse "to collect, upload, transmit, display, or distribute any User Content (ii) that...promotes illegal activities or contributes to the creation of weapons, illegal materials or is otherwise objectionable."

The company's attorney made no bones about the fact that last week's tragedy was the impetus for sweep of the site for offenders. He told CNET:

"We have always had the discretion to take action for policy violations. Recent events served as the impetus here to take immediate action (and there were several) and reiterate or emphasize the site's focus on creative empowerment for products that have a positive impact."

To his point, you can still download plans for a business card gun, space pirate cosmo gun prop or semiautomatic rubber band gun.

(Photo: Instagram, @pinkla16)

Thanksgiving beat out Hurricane Sandy as the most-Instagrammed event ever, solidifying the photo platform as more of a Path-type social network than the future of citizen journalism. [PandoDaily]

The Wiki Weapon Project could be testing its 3D printed guns by end of year. [The Guardian]

Courts continue to wrangle over the legality of collecting texts and data from cell phones to use as evidence. [The New York Times]

Facebook has finally admitted it will soon share the data it collects from your profile with external websites and ad networks. [GigaOm]

Can the Wii U save Nintendo? [The New York Times]