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."
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."
