Is these "laws" something we should worry about?

[curious aardvark]

well it's a long running thing.

all iin one printers have had software on them for years that stops you photocopying money.

I know this because my test for a newly instelled printer at a clients used to be copying a £20 note.

Then one day a few years back It wouldn't do it. You just get crap come out. Everything else works fine, but on modern printers you just can't photocopy money anymore.

Plus with plastic printers you can always change the firmware to an older one.

Basically it's the same argument - nobody in the uk can print firearms without incurring the wrath of the men in black anyway.

And in the us you get real guns free i crackerjack boxes. So why worry :-)
Plus anything built into firmware can only be a database of parts they know about. design your own and it won't be in the database - so won't be effected.

[Ama-fessional Molder]

And in the us you get real guns free i crackerjack boxes. So why worry :-)

Exaggerating the issue doesn't help you know. I had to pay several hundred dollars and pass a background check for mine.

Besides, 3d printed guns are no more dangerous than any other gun, except maybe to the user, and if you intend to build one durable enough to do any real damage you will need metal components and they are then just as easy to detect as any other firearm.

All that said, as with the printers and money, it doesn't affect anyone day to day so I don't really see the issue. Plus, we as makers would just build our own printer with our own firmware and circumvent it anyways. There's no way at all to enforce this.


It's Commiefornia. They spend millions creating and enforcing worthless laws that the rest of the world wouldn't ever waste their time with, and then wonder why their economy is shot. The rest of the country rarely worries about or cares what laws they pass, and they are a running joke with everyone from grade school on up.

[Mjolinor]

Exaggerating the issue doesn't help you know. I had to pay several hundred dollars and pass a background check for mine.

Is that rednecks only or all citizens?

[Geoff]

well it's a long running thing.

all iin one printers have had software on them for years that stops you photocopying money.

I know this because my test for a newly instelled printer at a clients used to be copying a £20 note.

Then one day a few years back It wouldn't do it. You just get crap come out. Everything else works fine, but on modern printers you just can't photocopy money anymore.

Plus with plastic printers you can always change the firmware to an older one.

Basically it's the same argument - nobody in the uk can print firearms without incurring the wrath of the men in black anyway.

And in the us you get real guns free i crackerjack boxes. So why worry :-)
Plus anything built into firmware can only be a database of parts they know about. design your own and it won't be in the database - so won't be effected.

I can confirm this, they still use microdotting in photocopiers to trace bank note copying. The machines I work on use the yellow toner to spray practically invisible microdot serial number identification. Anywhere there is white, if you get a microscope you can see the yellow microdots. This is how they track which machine copied the bank note. Considering 99.9 percent of photocopiers are under a management agreement, tracking them down is pretty easy.