"Five months ago, the group of homemade gun enthusiasts known as Defense Distributed set out to create a lethal firearm that could be downloaded and 3D-printed entirely from scratch, circumventing all gun control laws." Continue reading →
"A New York lawmaker will introduce a bill designed to ban people from making gun magazines with 3-D printers, following a demonstration of a working model by a Texas firearms group. Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) will push to renew the Undetectable Firearms Act with an added stipulation banning the manufacturing, ownership, transport or purchase of 3-D printed firearms or high-capacity magazines. Israel said he decided to not just renew, but expand the legislation after his staff discovered footage released by the group, Defense Distributed, of a man firing 86 rounds through a semi-automatic rifle using 30-round magazines created by 3-D printers." Continue reading →
"On This Week in Tech, Leo Laporte, who is understandably worried, suggests that podcasters get together and fight this patent, instead of being picked off one by one. This may be a good strategy, but another thing podcasters should do is reevaluate their (typical) support for IP—for patent and copyright." Continue reading →
"A video from Defense Distributed popped up just in time for Barack Obama's momentous address to the nation about, among other things, banning the sale of 30-round magazines. The video shows a test fire of an assault rifle using a 3D-printed 30-round clip. The capability adds another layer to the loopholes and problems that exist in a 'high-capacity magazine' ban. The implication is that, as technology becomes more available, it won't be long before regular people can put 30-round magazines in the printing queue next to their TPS reports." Continue reading →
"As funeral services were held for Internet activist Aaron Swartz, the debate intensified over what some called a 'draconian' US computer crime law used by allegedly overzealous prosecutors. An online petition calling for the removal of the prosecutors in his case garnered more than 31,000 signatures Tuesday and some of Swartz’s supporters blamed a 1986 computer crimes statute for his suicide. Swartz, who was just 14 when he co-developed the RSS feeds that are now the norm for publishing frequent updates online and went on to help launch social news website Reddit, hanged himself in his New York apartment on Friday." Continue reading →
"Prosecutors are vested with the extraordinary power to investigate, prosecute, bankrupt, and use the power of the state to imprison people for decades. The US has become a society in which political and financial elites systematically evade accountability for their bad acts, no matter how destructive. Those who torture, illegally eavesdrop, commit systemic financial fraud, even launder money for designated terrorists and drug dealers are all protected from criminal liability, while those who are powerless - or especially, as in Swartz's case, those who challenge power - are mercilessly punished for trivial transgressions." Continue reading →
"Bitcoin takes the basic theorem that anything that be done with a trusted authority can be done without a trusted authority and applies the theorem to the combined fields of cryptography and currency, which is now known as cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency that exists today. Bitcoin is a free open source peer-to-peer electronic cash system that is completely decentralized, without the need for a central server or trusted parties. Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each other, with the help of a P2P network to check for double-spending." Continue reading →
"The way that one mass murderer has been turned into a poster boy for the agenda of depriving millions of Americans of the right to own weapons that virtually none of them will ever use to commit a crime is disgusting, and seems to be rooted in some sort of cultural bigotry. Nothing else would easily explain the invincible resistance to logical arguments such as: rifles are rarely used in crimes, gun control empowers the police state over the weak, and such laws simply do not work against criminals, full stop. Rifles are easier to manufacture than methamphetamine, and we know how well the drug war has stopped its proliferation, and 3D printing will soon make it impossible to stop." Continue reading →
"The top 100 fast-globalising companies from rapidly developing economies are outpacing their rivals from developed economies in terms of expansion, job creation and productivity, said the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study. These companies, which it called global challengers, grew at an annual average of 16 percent from 2008 through 2011, four times the rate of their competitors in developed countries. Their average revenue hit $26.5 billion (20 billion euros) in 2011, compared to $21 billion for the non-financial companies listed on the S&P 500 stock index." Continue reading →
"Tuesday’s figures showed that the number of people accessing the Internet via mobile devices in 2012 increased 18.1 percent to 420 million. The use of micro-blogging services — similar to Twitter — also surged, the report said, with the total number of users increasing by 58.73 million to 309 million. Internet use has steadily increased despite strict censorship via what is known as The Great Firewall — the country’s system of online limits and restrictions. Online shoppers in the world’s second largest economy, meanwhile, rose 24.8 percent to 242 million." Continue reading →