cross-posted from: https://libretechni.ca/post/1263630
New York’s state budget could pass within days. Buried deep in the text is a provision that has nothing to do with balancing the books. Part C of the budget bill would require every 3D printer sold in New York to run surveillance software that scans every design file you create, and blocks anything an algorithm flags as a potential firearm component . A separate provision would expose researchers, journalists, and educators to felony charges simply for possessing or sharing certain design files.
So why is this part of a budget? Why are they allowed to pass laws/regulations as a footnote to a budget.
Its insane, if I presented a budget for approval and it included footnotes adding in random unrelated policies I’d be laughed out of a job.
At least in the US, this is pretty ridiculous. We have more murder tools (AKA guns) than people. And considering the majority of them are loaded and unsecured, we obviously don’t care about safety and more guns isn’t something we seem to mind so…
I think we can just print whatever the fuck we want on our 3D printers. The manufacturers of guns can seriously fuck off with this garbage legislation hidden under the guise of safety.
When it mandates technology in hardware, manufacturers don’t build a New York-only version. They build one version and sell it everywhere. What passes in Albany won’t stay in New York.
Once again, the USA is being a problem for the entire world.
And, as usual, we don’t get any say in the matter unless/until we completely isolate ourselves from them.
Just once I’d like to see the world’s companies react to dumb local laws by refusing to sell their products where the laws apply. Problem is, other states and countries always introduce matching stupid laws soon enough. California, for example, is introducing a similar restriction on 3D printers.
So what you mean to tell me is that every 3D printer in New York is going to come with an index of firearm components?
There is no such technology. This will effectively ban 3d printers until there is. It’s not as trivial as they make it sound
Not to mention that someone’s going to come out with a jailbreak option for every 3D printer within a couple of weeks of this being implemented at a manufacturing scale.
I mean, at the end of the day, we’re talking stepper motors, switches, a resistive heater, (EDIT: or two. Forgot about the heated bed) a thermistor (or two, heated bed again), a few fans. maybe a solenoid. What you’re usually buying with a 3d printer is the hardware and the mechanical engineering that went into it, The on board software is… sufficient, but there’s a reason things like Octoprint and Klipper are so popular.
Someone outside the USA who is annoyed at stupid US policies fucking over the rest of the world yet again.
Given that the printer itself has just enough computing power to just understand “by how many steps I need to move that motor” (or little more) I suppose it should be done at a slicer level, which would be interesting to do.
So people will start distributing presliced gcode.
Yes, but you can tied the printer to a specific slicer in a number of ways.
And you can make the electronic board in a way so that you cannot phisically update the firmware. (Putting it in a read only memory for example)
You can alter the firmware (that you save is in a read only memory) to refuse to load gcode directly from a USB stick, you can have the firmware ask the slicer for a specific handshake protocol. Basically once you can couple the firmware with the slicer and make it not upgradable you can do whatever you want except maybe heavy cryptography. If the only way to change the firmware is to replace the board, I bet a lot of people would do not it and who would do it can simply build their printer from scratch.It would make the printer more exepnsive, sure, but that does not seems to be a problem to the law. Also, it would kill the opensource slicer (or at least try).
Americans do love insisting that it’s impossible to control guns, even though literally every other country does it successfully.
I mean you’re looking at what it will take to fully control guns in America.
Any second thoughts?
Yes, instead of trying with laws that are getting sillier and sillier, try to make just one that make sense.