First Amendment Issue, RIght?

Posted on by

Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras:

This has to be a First Amendment Issue, right? Please tell me these types of laws are going to get slapped down.

Share

7 thoughts on “First Amendment Issue, RIght?”

  1. The “check-in for approval” piece … there must be a technological way around that, right?

    What I’m envisioning (using a 3D printer for the example) is a man-in-the-middle/spoofing hack: Do a couple “legitimate” prints while running a network sniffer to see where the blueprint packets go and what gets returned. Then set up a proxy on your home network that catches and redirects those to a virtualized server that you control, that then returns a similar approval packet (not identical; I assume it will be date/time stamped) through the proxy. In theory, the 3D printer knows that it sent the blueprint and go-ahead request, and got a positive response. The print proceeds. Going forward, keep doing occasional “legitimate” prints without your proxy up so the state server receives traffic from your 3D printer and nobody questions why they got two or three and then your printer went silent.

    This seems plausible, but maybe someone with more networking experience can weigh in?

    But yes, the prohibition on sending, sharing, research, and reporting would seem to be a clear 1st Amendment issue. Additionally, the “blueprint” is often a digital file only readable by 3D printers or CNC machines; someone could receive “an attachment,” not be able to do anything with it, not even know what they have since their computer can’t read it, and it’s still a felony just for having it.

    (On that note, who wants to start an anonymous email campaign and send the forbidden felonious files to everyone who voted in favor of this amendment to a BUDGET bill?)

    • “Additionally, the “blueprint” is often a digital file only readable by 3D printers or CNC machines; someone could receive “an attachment,” not be able to do anything with it, not even know what they have since their computer can’t read it, and it’s still a felony just for having it.”

      This is already the case for child pornography, and attempts to do what you suggest in that case have all been for naught – “prosecutorial discretion” for the special people takes care of it instantly and without the slightest problem. These kinds of laws are for “the little people”, not the actually important (in their own opinion) people.

  2. Your suggestion is plausible, but if the designers of the permission system know what they are doing, digitally signing and encryption will make the problem much more difficult than what you propose.

    I suspect an easier hack would involve modifying the soft/firm-ware of the printer to not ask for permission. That, too, can be made non-trivial with digitally signed software. But it probably can be done. Disable the signed software check, then disable the permission check.

    • I’ve seen stuff on this problem from a technical person a couple times already (before it was even passed), and the level of confidence that this would be bypassed (and fairly easily) was **extremely** high.

      In other words, like most gun control, it will do nothing about those it is supposedly intended to affect and instead only affect those it shouldn’t (with very annoying side effects at the very least).

      • As opposed to… which other gun control schemes?

        You just have to remember that their stated goals are not the goals of anybody with a brain on the other side, because the stuff being pushed has ZERO chance of accomplishing the stated goals, and anybody with a brain knows it.

        But it keeps the idiots cheering, so obvious lies it is.

  3. Would it not also be intellectual property theft, or enforced loss of trade secrets? If you have to show them what you are doing before printing, then they must be given the plans of, well, what you are doing, which is many cases are going to not be off-the-shelf parts…. Sounds like like a massive prima face 1st amendment violation.

Comments are closed.