If there was one guy who could stand up to the U.S. Government, thumb his nose and shout “come and get me!” it would be Kim Dotcom. Made famous after Uncle Sam failed to bring him down for his Megaupload website (which was being used as a major repository for illegal music, movies, child porn and other questionable online activities), Kim’s latest website (simply “Mega”) was the last public online mirror where people could download Defense Distributed’s Liberator files (for their 3D printable gun). But now it appears that Kim himself has browned his pants at the idea of the files being on his server and decreed that they be removed by his web minions . . .

ZDNet has the story:

Kim Dotcom, founder of Mega, has said that the designs for a 3D-printed gun were “scary”, and has deleted public links to its blueprints from his file-sharing website.

[…]

Dotcom said he was not contacted by the US government, but became aware of its plans to shut down public links to the designs.

“I think it’s a serious threat to security of the community. I think it’s scary that people can print 3D guns that can’t even be detected by metal detectors … This should concern everybody,” he told Radio New Zealand.

If I were a betting man, I would have wagered that Kim Dotcom would have been all for freedom of speech and openness. Instead, it looks like the man who is most famous for proving that the internet is incapable of being censored is trying to do the exact same thing himself.

Let me (using my network security hat here) take the example of child porn to illustrate exactly how useless it is to try and censor the internet. We can all agree that files depicting the abuse and exploitation of children are despicable and should be erased from the internet forever. But those files keep popping up and new ones are added every day. They won’t go away, no matter how much we as a society want them to.

You can’t delete something from the internet. You can’t stop the signal. For better, or for worse.

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50 COMMENTS

  1. did not expect he would fold, especially with the ass whipping he is going to hand the FBI for his megaupload case.

  2. Wow, I guess I grabbed it just in time. Literally, 27 minutes ago. It’ll never really be “gone”, though. Not as long as the Internet as we know it even a little bit exists.

    • All you have to do is go to pretty much any torrent site and you can find all of their files.

      • Yup. Torrent sites, especially small to medium sized ones, just plain do not give a shit what is being hosted.

    • I don’t see the “shame” in folding when the files are out there forever. Pick your battles – this one is already won.

      • The only shame is allowing the USA government to trample over both #1 and #2 amendments at the same time.

    • It’s a cultural thing; i’ve been in Australia the last 4 months and it is just the mindset of people on this side of the planet to tend towards hoplophobia

    • Liberals are all about “free speech” when it’s protecting the child molesters– the “wolves”, and mostly when it’s protecting the “sheep” whose life choices fall within 2 standard deviations (i.e. the 96%).

      When it’s about protecting the “sheep dogs” (don’t like that term, bear with me) … liberals are scared, since they themselves are either sheep or wolves.

      So, yes, hoplophobia with a dose of xenophobia.

    • That’s an older pack, and doesn’t include the Liberator. Try instead putting “defcad” in the search field.

      • The liberator is available via torrent websites. “DefCad” returns 1100 + Seeds for the Liberator CAD files.

  6. Wow, I would think he would understand the point more than others. The direct end is not for everyone to start actually making these things. The point is to illustrate how gun control laws do not work because criminals do not follow the law. I am disappointed.

  7. So he’s ok with the grotesque sexual exploitation of children, but not ok with self-defense firearms? no wonder he’s a scumbag.

    • What probably happened is that he’s not OK with a personal trip to prison at the behest of the Department of Justice, who will be sicced like a Chicago gang on him and anyone else daring to uphold the RKBA.

      • He’s a Finnish/German dual-citizen residing in New Zealand. I don’t think he cares about ITAR regulations.

      • Prison is fine. An oubliette, not so much.

        They probably threatened to extra-legally weld him in a room and throw away the building.

    • I just downloaded it. Not that I can actually make one. 3D printers are a wee bit out of my price range right now.

      • The cost of the printer is immaterial. Its better to have the file (despite not being able to do anything with it), than to not have the file at all. Who knows, one of these days 3d printers may/will be commonplace.

  10. Only problem I see mentioning TPB here is, some radicalized lefty liberal anti-gunner may see it as acknowledgement of and condoning piracy of video, audio, and software. In this case, I see torrents being used in a proper way, to spread FREE files (meant to be free, gratis) to the masses that want them. No 3D printer here, and may be a while before I could even dream of one, but at least I’ll have Mega-Pack 4.2 on standby.

    • Copyright is BS. It violates real property rights (the right to do what I want with my own paper and ink).

  11. Free speech is only as free as the media that controls it…in this case RF and the gang. Their board, their rules. Start your own blog…it’s pretty easy these days.

    As for the child porn, even though I personally think it’s sick and disgusting, you have a point. 18 some states, 16 others, and yes…little over a hundred years ago…:( Anyone on here not loose their virginity around age 15-18?

    All truths we hold dear are from a certain point of view, and “society” decides for the most part what that point of view is. Apparently, the society we currently live in approves of child porn, and not of guns…

    I feel like I’m on an alien world lately.

    • @SGC
      If civil rights don’t extend to the private sector, why are businesses no longer allowed to posts signs which says No Coloreds Allowed, or own people as property?

      • rtempleton, hmmmmm, matt, and others…all in the space of a couple days, all with hamfisted attempts to derail discussions and take up space with non sequitur ad hominem. The major thing that happened in the last week that I can think of was the introduction and dissemination of the Liberator. Do you think that’s what’s gotten them so worked up? They’ve got no counter to the event so they try to make it “not happen” by attempting to make others talk about the most irrelevant things they can think of? A sort of “I have no potence but I must scream?”

      • On the first point, people should be allowed to post such signs. Why? Because I wouldn’t want to support a business that hates me. If they piss off enough people, they go out of business. Free market, baby.

        The second point, you cannot take away another persons rights. Slavery takes away a persons natural freedom and human rights. Read John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government for expanded explanation on this.

        Supporting an idea just because it has always been that way is a logical fallacy.

        John has beaten his wife during the entirety of his marriage. Therefore, John should continue to beat his wife.

  12. A firearm like this has so many mind-boggling ramifications, this is a game changer of international proportions. Could this arm a revolution? Could this embolden and arm criminals? Could this open a new method of firearms sales, like an FFL Vending Machine? Could this weapon change the ways that existing arms manufacturers make future guns – and affect the price of the next generation of them?

    • FFL vending machine, put a fresh Benjamin in get an AR lower. That would be cool…

    • “…this has so many mind-boggling ramifications, this is a game changer of international proportions.”

      True but isn’t this more the norm in human history than the rare oddity? I imagine the knights of old bemoaned advancements in steel making that put a sword of somewhat lower quality in the hands of just about anyone that wanted one. I bet BCMAV (big cave man about village) Grog was none too happy when someone of smaller statue could reach out and touch him with an arrow when all he had was a club.

      Change happens. People try to suppress it. But it still happens.

    • They’ve already stated they don’t have an untouchable server system yet, and they don’t really need to. You just need a torrent search, like the one gloomhound suggested above.

    • Anti-semitic remark removed. This is your final warning. One more flame and you will be permanently banned.

  16. Apparently villains from james bond movies really do exist.

    Other than that. All those that think the Liberator files are good for gun rights………your arrogance has outgrown your wisdom.

    • mnoswad1,

      If you are happy to obey your masters and rulers and be satisfied with whatever level of infringement on your rights they choose to impose, the Liberator files might not be a good developement, but the Liberator is neither good nor bad for rights. Rights perpetually exist, regardless of how the tyrants empowered by government react to the Liberator files.

      If you wish to stand for what the framers of the Constitution intended (that people be armed through their own means and not just with arms the government permits people to posses) and the natural right to self-defense (from muggers, rapists, or even the tyranny of government), then the Liberator files are very good for the cause of liberty, because they make people aware of the infringements. In practical terms, the Liberator changes nothing. If anyone wants a simple single shot handgun, they are better off getting a flare gun and an insert to shoot firearm ammo. For lawless or even immmoral people, there are classic “zip guns” and countless guns that can be easily stolen or obtained on the black market.

      • I should have said “support for gun rights” instead of “gun rights”……you are correct in your wording and point of view.

        However, your mistaking one issue for another. This gun is not about the second amendment, Its not about zip guns or personal builds either……..its about evading metal detectors only.

        Its bad for liberty because it gives those who want to take away liberty…….just cause (in their minds). The plastic Liberator being public now will one day end up on an airplane…….the only reason for the Liberator is to defeat metal detectors, as we could all get a nail and a single round onto a plane, easy. Why give TSA even more of an excuse to molest us?

        So when this gun is used to by multiple assholes , with multiple spare plastic barrels, with multiple spare rounds to take down the next plane, all we will hear is a bunch of “see I said so” ‘s from the gun grabbers…..I’d rather not give them any ammunition to justify their cause. Sure, anyone could try to build a plastic gun ala John Malkovich, but the press surrounding this particular gun is too appealing to those that don’t have much of an imagination, and most criminals and future terrorists are not particularly original.

        Everyones support for this particular issue is misguided because your using this as another proxy for supporting gun rights, when in fact this particular issue is singular to itself.
        I cannot be blindly one sided.

        Ultimately the liberator is not about true liberty, but is more about Cody Wilson’s ego.

  17. I laugh at how easily people find fall before guys like Kim and fawn all over him. OH he’s the savior, NEO You’re The One.

    Ever think that 1. that he is a creation of the gov;t? 2. That any heat he gets helps build his legend for another part of the gov;t that wants his site up and running?

  20. yes. the files are in the wild and never will truly be “gone”. with that said, this “gentleman” has the right to do what ever he wants with his property.

  21. And, because they’re continuously awesome, of course The Pirate Bay is hosting a couple Defense Distributed files, including The Liberator.

  22. My idiot younger sister married a guy from NZ where Kim lives. She ultimately divorced him, but the few years she was with him were a trip.

    He really thought he was smarter than Americans in general, even though he very clearly wasn’t. One time we debated whether or not it was King Solomon who was noted for his wisdom, for example. He was positive I was thinking of King David and continually argued the point in the face of facts. He refused to admit it was King Solomon who threatened to cut a baby in half when two women claimed to be its mother.

    I will never forget this one time when my sister told me she had to “talk him down” when he saw a Police officer with a gun on his hip at the DMV. When I asked what she was going to talk him down from doing, she couldn’t answer. But she did told me he almost started crying and said he didn’t understand America.

    Gentlemen, we cannot assume that people abroad respect our right to bear arms in any way. People outside of the USA have not had the rights we enjoy for a long time.

  23. Who would have though that the LAN-Party would one day be the Gun Show of the future. I can remember people bring extra hard-drive to hold all the illegal files that were going to be traded and swapped at LAN-Parties. What I’m getting at is that now that the files are out there they will be exchanged and proliferate themselves one way or another, there is no stopping it.

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