Amazon took down Wednesday code for a 3D-printable gun after it was uploaded to their site in book form.
The blueprint, entitled “The Liberator Code Book: An Exercise in Freedom of Speech,” first appeared on the online market August 1 before being removed this week for violating “content guidelines.”
The 584-page book contained the exact input-commands needed for a 3D printer to produce the plastic Liberator firearm.
CJ Awelow, listed as the book’s author, argued simply in the product’s description that “Code is speech.”
“Proceeds will be used to fight for free speech and the right to bear arms,” Awelow added.
The Free Beacon, a news site which obtained a copy of the blueprint, reports that the book also contains a “two-page instruction guide on how to assemble a Liberator.”
The removal comes after a federal judge ordered Defense Distributed, the company behind the Liberator, to remove its 3D gun blueprints hosted online as part of a temporary restraining order.
After confirming the book’s removal to The Washington Post, an Amazon spokesman declined to specify how exactly the book violated its rules.
“He declined to elaborate on exactly what guidelines the book violated or whether the decision to remove it was related to the temporary restraining order,” the Post writes.
The debate over 3D-printable guns reemerged earlier this year when a settlement with the State Department resulted in Defense Distributed being permitted to post the files online.
Numerous states are now attempting to issue permanent injunctions against the company in an attempt to limit the spread of their blueprints.
The code, despite attempts to clamp down on its spread, has already been downloaded and shared hundreds of thousands of times since originally appearing online.
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