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In an exclusive interview with Matt Aaron of the Bitcoin.com Podcast Network, Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed explains how he planned all along to defy US lawmakers. The same US District judge who last month prevented Mr. Wilson and his company from publishing 3D firearm blueprints online for free download has issued a more permanent ruling today, extending that initial ban indefinitely. Today’s decision was fully expected by Mr. Wilson, and he revealed to the Humans of Bitcoin podcast his immediate plans to exploit a little-known loophole.
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Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed Defiant in Face of Federal Court Ban
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik upheld his initial injunction of a month ago, almost to the day, banning 3D gun blueprints from being published on Cody Wilson’s Defense Distributed website.
Mr. Wilson has maintained the issue is largely one of speech protected by the FIrst Amendment. However, Judge Lasnik disagreed, stressing Mr. Wilson’s rights to speech are “dwarfed by the irreparable harms the States are likely to suffer if the existing restrictions are withdrawn and that, overall, the public interest strongly supports maintaining the status quo.”
Nearly two dozen states, along with Washington, DC, went after an agreement arrived at by Mr. Wilson and the US Department of State a few months ago, ending a years-long court battle most legal observers said would eventually end in Mr. Wilson’s vindication. That has not happened.
Along with Mr. Wilson as a defendant in the matter is Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his agency. Under the settlement with the US State Department, Mr. Wilson was given license to publish 3D firearm blueprints online. It appears that is no longer the case, at least in the foreseeable future, due to today’s ruling.
EXCLUSIVE: Defense Distributed to Sell 3D Gun Blueprints in Defiance of Internet Download Ban
“I haven’t told anyone this yet,” Cody Wilson, embattled owner of Defense Distributed, an arms dealer turned free speech crusading outfit, explained to Bitcoin.com Podast Network host Matt Aaron late last week. “On Monday this judge is going to rule […] and he’s going to basically give some type of injunction. He’s going to say, you know, ‘Cody, I’m enjoining the government, that means you can’t post your files.’ And Brady and all these people are gonna come out there be like, ‘Wow, you know, we saved America. Thank you, judge. No one can get access to these files,’” Mr. Wilson teased.
“Well, the way the law works, of course…that’s how it worked in the media […] ‘Ah, the judge has blocked the files! No one can have them!’ But the way the law actually works is that…the controversy is about whether you can post them on the internet or not. No one’s even disputing that I can sell you the file or that I can just give it to you. So when the judge makes his ruling on Monday, all I’m going to do is show what I’ve been developing in secret for the past few weeks. I’m just going to start selling the files on my site instead of letting you download them. It’s like, whoa, it’s gonna blow them the fuck out, […] they don’t even have a framework for understanding,” he explained.
“The American public simply doesn’t have the files because I’ve just chosen not to give it to them. This has all been my choice. This controversy over downloading them is a false one, and a mere technicality, which they are spending millions of dollars on to propagate to the public that they’re protecting them from the files. No, nothing’s protecting the public from the files; I’m choosing not to give the files to the public yet, and I’ll begin doing that next week,” he insisted.
“I will, just to prove you’re all idiots and this is stupid. I have to show you that. I’m not gonna whine for many years…You have to cast the entire enterprise into doubt, and you have to discredit it, and you can’t do that within the process. You have to do it outside of it. I’m going to let them have their little victory, ‘We saved America!’ and then I’m going to make millions of dollars selling the files next week,” Mr. Wilson told Mr. Aarron defiantly. The Humans of Bitcoin episode featuring Mr. Wilson airs today.
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Images via Pixabay, Defense Distributed.
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