I think this specific suit is valid, but it does raise questions about where the line should be drawn. With just a little creativity, it is <i>very</i> easy to build extremely dangerous weapons from off-the-shelf parts. I won't mention anything specific, as some HN karma is not worth the slightest chance of these weapons being used. I will mention one of my rejected ideas, as there is a straightforward countermeasure: laser blinding devices. Powerful infrared laser diodes are cheap, as are the optics and electronics to drive and focus them. Such lasers are invisible and cause permanent damage faster than one can blink. They have a range measured in kilometers, and they are small enough to be mounted on consumer drones. Combine this with face recognition/tracking, and you could permanently blind any target who dared to show themselves in public.<p>Do you think someone who published the specifics (parts list, blueprints, source code, etc) of such a device should be punished? I do, even though I think there's an obvious countermeasure. Likewise, while Wilson's 3D-printed gun is a toy, not everything publishable is so benign. Before we hop on the train of free-speech idealism, we should realize how fortunate we are that nobody has discovered a convenient world-ending weapon. Considering the amount of energy pent-up in ordinary matter, we've been <i>incredibly</i> lucky. SILEX[1] came close, but thankfully its specifics have been kept secret. And had physics turned out slightly differently, building a nuclear weapon could have been as easy as putting sand in a microwave.[2]<p>As much as I hate to admit it, there is such a thing as dangerous information. Until humanity becomes wiser, I think our only (terrible) option is to silence people who try to spread it. Again, this specific case clearly falls under free speech, but it's important to keep future discoveries in mind.<p>1. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_isotopes_by_laser_excitation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_isotopes_by_lase...</a><p>2. This example was originally used by Nick Bostrom.