A few days after the blueprints for the world's first printable gun were published online, Defense Distributed has been asked by the State Department to pull them down, citing possible arms trafficking violations. The blueprints, however, are still available on The Pirate Bay and many other file-sharing sites, which adds a 3D chapter to the IP enforcement debate.The Pirate Bay says it welcomes the blueprints and has no intention of taking the files down.

In late 2012 the 3D blueprint website Thingiverse decided to ban 3D gun designs, citing their terms of service which clearly prohibit files used to make weapons.

Enter DEFCAD, a site dedicated to hosting designs that have been banned at Thingiverse. Namely, the entirely printable 3D gun design which clocked up more than 100,000 downloads within its first two days of release.

This did not sit well with the Department of State Office of Defense Trade Controls who kindly requested that DEFCAD remove the availability of the 3D printable gun documents, enthusiastically named “The Liberator,” citing a possible violation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

In the letter from the State Department, which can be read in full at Forbes, the Government explains that it wants to review whether the designs are in compliance with arms export control laws.

While the attempted censorship of the 3D gun blueprints may come as no surprise, the popularity of these files is a vivid example of the daunting task faced by those charged with censorship of information.

While DEFCAD promptly complied with the request to remove access to the design, it was shared so widely during the short window of availability that it is now virtually impossible to prevent any further distribution. Currently, there appears to be several torrents available for the design at The Pirate Bay and the site informs us that these will not be censored.

“TPB has for close to 10 years been operating without taking down one single torrent due to pressure from the outside. And it will never start doing that,” A Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak.

Guns on The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay is not out to promote guns, but they do have a great interest in 3D printing.

“We think the whole idea of a printable object is interesting. You can print guns for sure, but even better you can print plowshares and other things as well. The problem is not the object but what you do with it. Just as with a cooking knife.”

The torrent site also says it welcomes Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson to start publishing designs on The Pirate Bay. A year ago TPB launched a 3D print section where the blueprints would fit nicely.

“When Defcad is closed down there is still TPB. Cody is welcome to upload everything on Defcad to TPB as well, so the users can comment on the crap.”

“Cody Wilson’s site has been branded ‘A Pirate Bay for 3D objects’ which is kind of funny, since TPB has had its physibles section more than a year already, with lots of objects in there. And since the whole idea behind TPB is to not let outside pressure judge, TPB is prepared for things like that.”

The Pirate Bay insider welcomes a debate on gun laws and U.S. oppression of free speech. “We laugh at their gun love since it’s so obviously the wrong way to go.”

“We think that the good thing about the discussion about 3D printers and their gun laws might bring more focus on the double standards that the U.S. is having and hopefully – people will start printing signs to protest against the guns, the corruption and the threats against freedom of speech that the U.S. is pushing on us.”

For now the 3D gun links posted on The Pirate Bay are from unverified sources. Printing those might not be such a good idea, but it is clear that the original designs are not going away. All one needs in order to access these files is a hash, there is no longer a central source that can be shut down to prevent public access to these files.

This BitTorrent connection also gives the term Defense Distributed a whole new meaning.

The takedown of the blueprints could very well mark the beginning of an era where proponents of so-called cyber warfare begin using military resources in attempts to regulate a data distribution protocol which has, thus far, been impossible to regulate.

At the minimum, it’s the start of a crackdown on 3D blueprints, which will undoubtedly become more common as technology advances.

Ryan Smith contributed to the article.