3D printing and Internet freedom

3D printers can be the impetus for new laws tightening the screws on the web. The reason for everything is their growing popularity, the prices of the printers themselves, which every year tend to go down, and, most importantly, what can be created with the help of these printers.

Today, 3D printers are used (mostly) for prototyping. Devices are getting cheaper. If MarketBot sells printers for about $ 2000 per device, then this project on a kickstarter is trying to raise funds for the production of printers that can be bought for $ 1199 already. Given this dynamic, few people would be surprised to see in a couple of years a 3D printer worth 500 bucks.

So, with the price of the issue figured out, it has all chances to become very affordable.
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3D printers allow you to print everything that your imagination can throw you. People prints toys, jewelry. Firms offer the production of artificial limbs, spare parts for cars and even houses.

Of course, people have different fantasies, and if you sit at home and peacefully stamp trinkets and StarWars figures, this does not mean that your neighbor does the same.

Someone HaveBlue spoke about the AR15 forum, which he has been reading for a long time. There appeared information about the creation of a fully-functional .22 caliber pistol using a 3D printer. The forum included a scheme for printing all the details. The cost of the barrel was some $ 100. And some even manage to use printers for the production of illegal chemical compounds.

Then everything is simple.

If any clever person can make a trunk at home, law enforcement agencies will have to somehow control what you print on your printer.

And what are the regulatory methods while floating in the air.

Federal authorities may try to monitor each CAD file sent to print for its “harmlessness”. Of course, this will only be possible if the Feds have access to every home and work computer.

But even such a draconian measure will not be effective - what prevents a person from using a printer connected to a computer without a network?

In general, a certain dilemma is created - either to create a number of bills that will somehow interfere in private life, reducing your level of Internet freedom, or develop rules that will minimize any negative effects of the prevalence of 3D printing, while not changing the current situation of human rights and freedoms on the web.

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