Bambu Lab has annoyed the open sauce crowd after threatening a developer who restored cloud printing features.
According to Tom’s Hardware, the Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit outfit that legally protects open-source software, said Bambu Lab violated the licenses governing its slicer.
The row kicked off after Bambu Lab threatened independent developer Paweł Jarczak, who built an OrcaSlicer fork called OrcaSlicer-bambulab. Jarczak’s fork bypassed Bambu Connect and restored cloud printing features.
The company sent a cease-and-desist demand and told Jarczak to remove the work from GitHub.
However, the SFC said Bambu Lab’s restrictions violate AGPLv3 because the licence does not permit additional limits on the rights granted under the copyleft agreement.
Bambu Lab accused Jarczak’s fork of impersonating Bambu Studio, bypassing authorisation controls and breaking its terms of use. The company claimed the fork involved reverse engineering closed-source software and “could allow modified forks to send arbitrary commands to printers”.
It added that the bambu_networking plugin inside Bambu Studio, which handles slicer communications, is proprietary. It argued that reverse engineering the protocol used by that plugin breached its terms.
“The AGPL, the DMCA, and Bambu Lab’s terms do not permit reverse engineering that violates applicable protocols, rules, or circumvents technical protection measures protecting our cloud services,” Bambu Lab told All3DP.
“From the beginning, our preference has been dialogue, not confrontation. At this stage, rather than escalating conflict, we are focusing on strengthening our own infrastructure and protection measures moving forward. Interim measures have already been implemented. Security will continue to be strengthened in future releases, and we recommend that users update to the latest version in a timely manner.”
Unfortunately for Bambu, the SFC sees things rather differently. It says bambu_networking is needed to run Bambu Studio, which means it falls under AGPLv3. Bambu Studio is a fork of PrusaSlicer, which was based on Slic3r. Since Slic3r uses AGPLv3, every derivative under it must use the same licence.
This has been bubbling away for years, but Bambu Lab’s move against Jarczak turned it into a proper community scrap. Prusa Research chief Josef Prusa said Bambu Lab was violating the AGPLv3 licence and that its behaviour raised security concerns.
Right-to-repair advocates have rallied behind Jarczak. YouTuber Louis Rossmann said he would cover up to $10,000 in legal costs for Jarczak, with Gamers Nexus matching that amount.
Rossmann said he would host the fork on his FULU Foundation GitHub and dared Bambu Lab to take legal action against him.
Bambu Lab is one of the biggest names in 3D printing, with a valuation reportedly in the billions and sales that have rattled Creality. That is why enthusiasts are twitchy, as the company appears to shift from open-source software towards proprietary apps and locked-down workflows.
As long as Bambu Lab uses software that includes AGPLv3 components, the SFC believes it must comply with the licence.
“We nonetheless regret that our reference to Terms of Service, legal context and a potential C&D understandably came across as a legal threat. That was not the outcome we wanted,” Bambu Lab told All3DP.
