Open-source non-profit claims Bambu Lab violated license — SFC steps in after multi-billion dollar 3D printer giant threatened independent developer, issued cease-and-desist demand on OrcaSlicer fork that restored cloud printing features

Bambu Lab X2D — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to legally protecting open-source software, said that Bambu Lab has violated the licenses that its slicer used as it looked into the company after the 3D printer manufacturer threatened to sue independent developer Paweł Jarczak.

Jarczak built an OrcaSlicer fork (called OrcaSlicer-bambulab) that bypassed the company’s Bambu Connect service, and was soon served with a cease-and-desist and a demand for the removal of their work from GitHub. According to the SFC, the company’s restrictions violate AGPLv3, the license its software is based on, which says one cannot put additional limitations on the rights granted under the copyleft agreement.

The company’s troubles began when it accused Jarczak’s fork of impersonating Bambu Studio, bypassing their authorization controls, and violating their Terms of Use. The 3D printer manufacturer also alleged that the developer used “reverse engineering” of its closed-source software and said it “could allow modified forks to send arbitrary commands to printers.” The company says that the bambu_networking plugin included in Bambu Studio, which handles all communication for the slicer, is proprietary. Because of this, it says reverse engineering the protocol that the plugin used, which Jarczak did to create their own Rust implementation, violates Bambu’s Terms of Service.

The company told All3DP in a statement, "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." It also added, "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."

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On the other hand, the SFC contends that because bambu_networking is required to run the Bambu Studio, it falls under AGPLv3, which the Bambu Lab’s slicer is licensed under. Bambu Studio itself is a fork of PrusaSlicer, which was also based on Slic3r. The original Slic3r uses AGPLv3, meaning every derivative under it, including Bambu Studio, must use the same license. The fact that bambu_networking is flagged as proprietary breaks the copyleft license and violates several clauses in the license agreement.

This has been going on for years now, but it’s the company’s actions against Jarczak that finally caused an uproar in the 3D printing community. Joseph Prusa himself, the chief of Prusa Research and the creator of PrusaSlicer on which Bambu Studio is based on, said that it was violating the AGPLv3 license, and that Bambu Lab’s actions raise red flags when it comes to security. Right-to-repair advocates are also rallying behind the developer, with YouTuber Louis Rossman saying that he will support Jarczak up to $10,000 for their legal expenses, with Gamers Nexus matching that amount. Furthermore, Rossman said that he’ll host the fork on his own FULU (Freedom from Unethical Limitations) Foundation GitHub and dared the company to take legal action against him.

Bambu Lab is one of the biggest names in the 3D printing industry, with the company reportedly boasting a valuation of billions of dollars and having overtaken Creality as the world’s best-selling budget 3D printer brand. This is why many enthusiasts are concerned, as it apparently moves away from open-source software and towards proprietary apps. But as long as it uses software based on AGPLv3-licensed components, it has no choice but to comply with those requirements.

As for the trouble that Bambu Lab's response on Jarczak's fork stirred, the company said to All3DP: "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."

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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

12 Comments Comment from the forums

ezst036

This company is pretty much proving the fact that proprietary software from the same vendor is a conflict of interest.

The only way users and consumers can be safe is open source. Even that isn't a guarantee, but it provides the absolute greatest percentage.
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helper800

Bambu labs wants to live in both worlds of controlling their software as if it were proprietary, while using free open source code. They need to either pony up for their own software development from the ground up while dumping AGPLv3 derivatives, or embrace AGPLv3 and cease breaking their contract. As it stands AGPLv3 may revoke its license from them through the courts. Under section 8 of its contract to use their open source code;

"You may not propagate or modify a covered work except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to propagate or modify it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License (including any patent licenses granted under the third paragraph of section 11)."
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Shiznizzle

The fund to combat this in the courts should he be taken there is more than the 20k mentioned in the article. Rossmann asked all of his subscribers how much they would be willing to part with, should they get sued. Most of us pledged money. Some huge sums. Others not so much but pretty much all at least something. I stated 10 dollars. Rossmann has a few million subs. I dont think bambu can plonk down a few million for a case they will lose
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wifi_engineer

FYI - Jarczak's own response to the issue is here in his GitHub repository that Bambu Lab had an issue with.

https://github.com/jarczakpawel/OrcaSlicer-bambulab/blob/main/bambu_response.md#my-response-to-bambu-labs-claims
It's helpful to have information right from the source sometimes. Please donate to the Software Freedom Conservancy's effort if you can. This is about more than just Bambu Lab's bullying; it's going to set a precedent for years to come.
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chaos215bar2

The absolute stupidest part of all this is just how unnecessary it was. What's Bambu's endgame here, anyway?

Did they think no one would notice, so they decided to just YOLO AGPL? Is this all for some paid tie-in down the line with their online services? Is Bambu somehow behind the push to lock down 3D printers, and they think this will give them an edge?

So far, Bambu just upset a good portion of the 3D printing community for seemingly absolutely no reason, except someone there wanting more control.
Reply
wifi_engineer

chaos215bar2 said:
The absolute stupidest part of all this is just how unnecessary it was. What's Bambu's endgame here, anyway?

Did they think no one would notice, so they decided to just YOLO AGPL? Is this all for some paid tie-in down the line with their online services? Is Bambu somehow behind the push to lock down 3D printers, and they think this will give them an edge?

So far, Bambu just upset a good portion of the 3D printing community for seemingly absolutely no reason, except someone there wanting more control.
Well said, and completely agree! As an open source hardware and software developer myself (and an owner of a Bambu P1S), I feel personally involved!

My personal opinion is that it's likely political in nature. With the recent asinine political pushes to lock down printers and try to fight "ghost guns", I see Bambu's efforts as their attempt to maintain control and be able to comply with future laws to restrict what is 3D printed... or they might be closed out of the US market if they don't. This is just speculation of course, but it makes sense to me.
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bill001g

wifi_engineer said:
Well said, and completely agree! As an open source hardware and software developer myself (and an owner of a Bambu P1S), I feel personally involved!

My personal opinion is that it's likely political in nature. With the recent asinine political pushes to lock down printers and try to fight "ghost guns", I see Bambu's efforts as their attempt to maintain control and be able to comply with future laws to restrict what is 3D printed... or they might be closed out of the US market if they don't. This is just speculation of course, but it makes sense to me.
Could be bambu is just using the government regulations to make more profit. They likely secretly pay people to lobby for these regulations kinda like car companies wanting to blame the government for the increase costs of cars when it is them that is making the increased profit.

The concept of 3d printed guns is something only idiots who also think a child eating his sandwich into a gun shape is committing some crime. Almost everyone who has any clue knows you can't make a gun purely out of plastic unless killing the person shooting the gun is a feature you want. There are metal 3d printers but not something a normal person would own. Would be cheaper to just buy a milling machine and make a gun the old fashion way. These are computer controlled also so I suspect there are gun part information you can get for these devices also.
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thrus

helper800 said:
Bambu labs wants to live in both worlds of controlling their software as if it were proprietary, while using free open source code. They need to either pony up for their own software development from the ground up while dumping AGPLv3 derivatives, or embrace AGPLv3 and cease breaking their contract. As it stands AGPLv3 may revoke its license from them through the courts. Under section 8 of its contract to use their open source code;

"You may not propagate or modify a covered work except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to propagate or modify it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License (including any patent licenses granted under the third paragraph of section 11)."
The funny part is that the code they went after that developer for is code that he didn't modify. He modified code around it but the actual part they're upset about that lets it tie into their systems that makes it" pretend" to be their software does so because he did not modify it.
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hwertz

I almost wrenched my eye sockets rolling my eyes so hard... 'We nonetheless regret that our reference to Terms of Service, legal context and a potential C&D understandably came across as a legal threat. '

Well, it WAS a legal threat and they served a C&D, no 'potential' about it, so...
Reply
DS426

chaos215bar2 said:
The absolute stupidest part of all this is just how unnecessary it was. What's Bambu's endgame here, anyway?

Did they think no one would notice, so they decided to just YOLO AGPL? Is this all for some paid tie-in down the line with their online services? Is Bambu somehow behind the push to lock down 3D printers, and they think this will give them an edge?

So far, Bambu just upset a good portion of the 3D printing community for seemingly absolutely no reason, except someone there wanting more control.
Yep, and so as someone like myself that is just about to get into 3D printing, I have choices. I might have been previously leaning toward BL, but now I'm leaning toward Creality over this.

Anecdote but not really; how many other potential AND existing customers will they lose over this?
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