BATFE Adds Theft To Its Crimes

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408 http://www.gunowners.org

Coloseum Software Corporation has developed software that will help dealers record all of the information that is unconstitutionally required by the federal government -- and to keep that information in a way that insulates them from bogus prosecutions at the hands of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (aka The Gang).

The document that is most often involved in "gotcha" injustices is the Form 4473 which all customers must fill out when buying from a licensed federal firearms dealer -- a requirement that is yet another unconstitutional imposition by the feds.

One of the favorite tricks of the BATFE has been to pounce on trivial customer errors such as writing "Blto" instead of "Baltimore" on the 4473 Form. One dealer supposedly showed his willfulness in breaking the law when his clerks missed some sixty-plus instances when customers tried to "sneak" Blto past those eagle-eyed inspectors from The Gang.

While this does nothing to fight crime, it has allowed The Gang to reduce the ranks of dealers by some 85 percent since the Clinton presidency.

The genius of Coloseum's software is that it allows a dealer to walk a customer through the Form 4473 without making a single mistake. With an electronic signature, the computer's form can be printed, providing a perfect 4473 available for The Gang to inspect.

A foolproof way of filling out the 4473 would reduce the number of dealersput out of business. That's the advantage of using the Coloseum software.

So Coloseum approached the BATFE several months ago to discuss its plans to release the first eForm 4473. The company wanted to make sure that it was complying with all applicable federal laws and get the agency's approval for the product.

The BATFE wanted to see the details of the program, which left the directors at Coloseum a bit hesitant, as companies are reticent to expose the details of a product before it's released to the market place.

No problem, Coloseum was told. The agency would protect the details of their product.

The Gang assigned a liaison, Ms. Melinda Whitworth, to work with Coloseum. She dealt with the company for several weeks, asking many detailed questions. Again, Coloseum was led to believe that, if they worked with Ms. Whitworth, they would get approval for their product.

Well, one of the Gang's representatives called for a meeting with Coloseum -- a meeting which took place earlier this month. It was at that meeting that Coloseum was told by an ATF agent that, "The BATF is in the process of creating our own technologies."

Coloseum asked for clarification -- did that mean that BATFE was developing its own software, similar to Coloseum's? "Yes" was the response.

James LaMonte, the CEO and founder of Coloseum Software Corp. was dumbfounded. "As a small business owner, I never would have thought that our biggest competition was the United States Government," he told Gun Owners of America.

After all, the IRS does not publish a "government version" of Turbo Tax. It's private companies that produce such products for public use. The Gang, as it is so apt to do, was once again trampling on the little guy.

Oh, and what about their "liaison," Ms. Whitworth? At the recent meeting, Coloseum found that Ms. Whitworth -- who was supposedly helping the company get ATF approval of its software -- was in charge of the team that is developing the copycat software at ATF.

Ms. Whitworth even had the effrontery to apologize for not having developed a product as good as Coloseum's.

Here is the bottom line. If The Gang gets their software out to dealers (probably for "free") before Coloseum gets to market, then the government's stolen version of the software is public domain. No one would ever need to buy Coloseum's intellectual property.

Coloseum is sending a free copy of its product to dealers so they can install the software on their store computer. If dealers need additional copies for a second or third computer, they can buy additional copies, as well. Hopefully, dealers will pounce on this opportunity.

What Coloseum is doing is unprecedented. And so, it seems, is the blatant thievery brazenly carried out by The Gang.

If dealers decide they just want to use the Bureau's software, they should first consider that they will be getting a much inferior product. Moreover, The Gang's software means that the government will have unrestricted access to all of the dealer's business records because it will allow "back door" access by the ATF. This kind of untrammeled access of all dealer records would not be possible with Coloseum Software.

It is long overdue that President Bush clean house at the BATFE. He needs to fire the Acting Director of the Bureau and command that employees destroy their stolen property.

You can visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send the President a pre-written message. You can also contact the President using any of the following mediums:

Their mistake was in not demanding a non-disclosure agreement with the government. And it *was* a mistake, since the government has long been known to *steal* software that was not protected.

The first thing to do when you design software is to copyright the heck out of it, *especially* “look and feel”. Any government agent or representative has to sign the EULA and non-disclosure before they can even look at the software.

The software itself has to be completely original, and with many unique keys and internal documentation to insure that it isn’t reverse engineered without identifiers.

If you really want to be paranoid, include an encrypted backdoor that can be used to deactivate the software. Another trick is to require the software to validate with the manufacturer online periodically, which, if it fails to do so, data files cannot be accessed.

It would be a major victory for any software developer to foul up a government agency that had pirated their software. Especially if they had to come hat in hand to get the problem fixed.

They should not have provided the ATF a copy at all. At least not until it was ready to ship. The design of such an application would be trivial. The concept has been around for a long time. All new federal employees use a similar tool when applying for employment. Essentially, it is just a validated form that saves to a printable .pdf file. The ATF is not interested in stealing the design. They are only interested in controlling the concept and ensuring that nobody screws up their method of delicensing FFLs. If a tool like this gets to market, it may eliminate clerical errors on forms and more importantly show that there is no justification for the ATF to develop its own tools. Any kind of congressional oversight would merely point out that everyone is already using Coloseum and there is no justifiable need for the ATF to expend money on developing a competing product. Gun sellers would say the same thing.

Another of their big problems with the software getting market share is that the ATF design would likely be web based. They would host it on a BATFE server and FFLs would login and then have buyers enter ther information. FFLs would then print their 4473s and keep them on file as required by law. The ATF would however have them all saved off to the server and dumped into a federal registration database. They would also be able to run computer programs to validate the data far better than could be done by hand in the field. They would make the validation weak when buyers are entering data and then the validation would be brutally strong when their server validated the data prior to visiting an FFL. The software would ensure more failed audits. It would also allow the ATF to track all new purchases, datamine all of the new forms for trends, see what kind of dangerous person has bought more than 10 guns this year, etc.

As the Aesop moral was noted, “A tyrant needs no excuse”. In this case I don’t think the company had a choice, because the ATFE can just reject the use of their product, saying it does not meet their standards, even if it contains all pertinent information.

That is, without prior approval in writing, the ATFE could just refuse to allow their product. This is the rotten system used in the Code Civil in Europe, which has the philosophy that, “anything not approved by the government is unlawful.” Just the opposite of the Common Law idea that “unless specifically prohibited, it is legal.”

The ATFE has evolved into a gun control agency, that believes it is in charge of the 2nd Amendment, and can allow or disallow that right at will. Their most insidious current tools are to both eliminate as many gun dealers as possible, and to eventually gain control over ammunition and even volatile chemicals as well.

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