AB 2047's performance standard dropped from expecting algorithms to "effectively prevent a technically skilled user from evading" to merely "substantially reduce the likelihood of foreseeable circumvention attempts." That's legislative code for "we know it won't work."
I've watched this bill crawl through the California Assembly, picking up amendments that look like concessions but only deepen the damage. The core remains: mandated surveillance software on all 3D printers sold in California, with censorship of any file the manufacturer decides is a firearm part. No technical fix can make this system effective against someone determined to print a gun, but it will block lawful uses, chill open source development, and hand manufacturers a surveillance feed of every print job.
The Impossible Mandate: Surveillance Software That Doesn't Have to Work
The original bill required the blocking algorithm to stop a "technically skilled user." That bar was already absurd - 3D printers are general-purpose tools, and anyone with a soldering iron or a fresh firmware flash can bypass software locks. The new language drops the pretense. Now the standard is just "foreseeable circumvention," a whack-a-mole game against an infinite attack surface. The bill still mandates surveillance of every print, but it no longer even pretends the censorship will hold. Manufacturers are left to self-police, with standards defined by non-governmental third parties. No oversight, no accountability.
Open Source Gets a Hollow Carveout
The most dangerous provision criminalizes users who run alternative open source firmware or slicers on their own printers. The amended bill adds a carveout for open source tools - but only if those tools include compliant censorship software. That forces open source developers to implement state-mandated spyware into their code, under ambiguous and unrealistic performance standards. The chilling effect on the open source 3D printing community is real: any experiment, any custom mod, any local toolchain now carries legal risk unless it ships with a surveillance module that can't possibly work as intended.
Hollywood Carveout Creates a Two-Tier Printer Market
A new exemption covers commercial users, specifically the entertainment industry that uses 3D printers for props and costumes. Big studios get to skip the surveillance. Indie filmmakers, cosplayers, small creators - they're left with the consumer-grade surveilled printers. But there is no clean line between consumer and commercial 3D printers. Manufacturers will happily sell a more expensive "commercial" tier that disables the surveillance software, locking in business customers while upcharging them. Anyone who buys a consumer printer to prototype designs at home risks leaking those designs to the manufacturer, snooping governments, or the public via data breaches.
AB 2047 heads to the state senate next. EFF is demanding senators vote no. If this bill passes, California will have enshrined a surveillance mandate that cannot achieve its stated goal, criminalizes open source tinkering, and carves out corporate users while leaving everyone else exposed.
Source: We Can Still Stop California's 3D Printer Surveillance Scheme
Domain: eff.org
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