With 2016 just one day away, I would have liked to post a nice journal wishing everyone a happy new year and stuff. Unfortunately, this will be another entry prompted by the workings of human dementia, which I think will be of interest to fellow artists on here. This time we'll be talking about a whole new legal issue which I've had the misfortune of discovering: Jail time for posting drawings or 3D models you create on the internet. Now before anyone acts upon their perfectly sane reflex of saying "that's impossible and it must be a misunderstanding", this is a confirmed thing... and no it's not happening in North Korea either.
Lawmakers in several countries are pushing to outlaw certain 3D models or sketches online... namely models of weapons which can be 3D printed. They hope that doing so will reduce potential gun violence committed with arms created by such devices. This tragic joke has already happened in a place called New South Wales, where (hold on tightly) people can get 14 years in prison for creating or downloading any 3D model of a gun that's compatible with a 3D printer. So far a group called Defense Distributed assisted by pro-internet movements (such as EFF) are fighting back, but nothing is yet certain.
Although I don't want to trigger any political wars here, I will say this: Such things make me way more scared of our leaders than of any terrorist group on the planet. Because I'm sorry if this offends anyone... but right now ISIS and all their terrorist attacks scare me so much less than knowing these fanatical imbeciles are in power and seek control over every aspect of our existence. This is like a poorly written dystopian science-fiction novel coming to life! Artists having to justify a 3D model they post on the internet... what in the holy hell?
The reason this is pure madness isn't just the ban itself though: Those who lobby for it outright believe that things everyday internet users produce (like schematic drawings or 3D models) qualify as technical data, and can be covered by laws regarding international weapon trafficking or classified technical designs or national security. Like literally... I can pick up a paper and pen, draw a simple blueprint of a printable gun, and my drawing is a matter of national security and international arms trafficking! Slap me folks, because I must be dreaming. These people should be prescribed some medication and put on leave immediately, before they accidentally pass god knows what law and set the world on fire... how did they even get there?!
What I want to know is whether this is the beginning of a dark era for artists, and yet another series of persecutions against the open internet. Are Blender or 3DS Max users now going to be labeled as criminals and arrested off the streets, if we post 3D meshes of weapon parts compatible with any 3D printer? Will websites like Blendswap / Turbosquid / 3DShare have to censor gun models? Will Deviantart ban me and turn me in to authorities for posting a drawing that shows the mechanical parts of a pistol?
Just as importantly, where will the boulder stop rolling in case it gets started? If someone decides they can outlaw blueprints of a weapon, they can just as easily criminalize any kind of model or drawing or speech for various reasons! Like what happens if I model a car or airplane, and include every mechanical aspect like the engine or wires? Will I someday have to take my *.blend file to a crash testing facility before I'm allowed to upload it to Blendswap, because 3D printers?
I'll end by saying the following: This is one of the few cases in life where I'm determined to ignore any law regardless of the consequences. In fact, I might start creating printable weapon models just to see what happens if this somehow passes! After the shit I've seen recently, I'm slowly being done with the illusion of law abiding citizens. If we end up in a society where you can be arrested over how a piece of art is used, I'd rather put myself in prison early and get it over with, rather than live in fear on a world where anything can become a crime (maybe even thoughts someday). This is of course a hypothetical scenario, granted lawmakers are mad enough to successfully regulate creations on the internet, therefore I'm not admitting to an existent crime. Of course I hope such simply won't have to happen... that this is all puberty pains in the growth of human society, and primitive people rediscovering modern technology then moving on.
