Amazon Removes Free Speech ‘Exercise’ Featuring 3-D Printed Gun Code Book

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-WEAPONSGetty Amazon has removed a book from its platform containing little more than computer code. While details about why Amazon removed the book are limited, the function of the code , to 3-D print a plastic gun that fires real bullets — called The Liberator — appears to be the most likely cause. What we know for sure about the decision is that the "book was removed for violating our content guidelines,” as an Amazon spokesperson confirmed. But the spokesperson declined to further elaborate on which guidelines the book violated. As a U.S District Judge in the state of Washington is in the final days of deciding whether or not to remove an injunction preventing the creator of the code, Cody Wilson, from publishing it online, the removal of the book could have far reaching consequences. “The scope of the injunction is to prevent Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed from publishing the files online,” said senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, Ilya Shapiro. “If the files are available in hard copy or book it is different.” Included in the Amazon terms provided by the spokesperson, are pornography, offensive content, illegal and infringing content, the use of certain public domain materials, and poor customer service experience. For Wilson’s part, he further clarified that the 3-D printed gun code was “committed to the public domain under an express open source license in 2013,” and added that he has “no problems at all” with the book being published on […]

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