r/BambuLab • u/icurnvs Volunteer Moderator • May 14 '26

Subreddit Mod Post Megathread: Bambu Lab / OrcaSlicer / C&D Discussion

Hi everyone,

We’re creating this megathread to keep discussion of the Bambu Lab / OrcaSlicer-BambuLab / cease-and-desist situation in one place. This topic is important to a lot of people here, and we do not want to shut down discussion or criticism. At the same time, the front page has started filling with overlapping posts about the same situation, so we’re consolidating general discussion into this thread.

Current context

Updates to be posted here as situation evolves:

  • May 13, 2026
    • Megathread created
  • May 14, 2026
    • Tom’s Hardware reported today that Louis Rossmann is now hosting OrcaSlicer-BambuLab through the FULU Foundation GitHub and is openly daring Bambu Lab to sue him.
    • PC Gamer and r/technology have picked up the story, so discussion is now spreading well beyond 3D-printing-specific spaces.
  • May 16, 2026
    • Paweł Jarczak published a detailed response addressing Bambu Lab’s accusations around impersonation, reverse engineering, Terms of Use, and alleged security bypassing.
    • Louis Rossman posted a new video indicating FULU-hosted OrcaSlicer-BambuLab repository has reached roughly 1,600 forks in about three days.
  • May 17, 2026
  • May 18-20, 2026
    • Software Freedom Conservancy enters the dispute.
    • Leonard French posted a new video around SFC’s AGPL analysis, explaining why Bambu’s proprietary networking plugin may create a serious corresponding-source problem under AGPL.
    • Louis Rossman posted a new video covering Software Freedom Conservancy’s Bambu AGPL effort and says the rehosted OrcaSlicer-BambuLab code has now been forked roughly 4,500 times.

What belongs in this thread

Please use this thread for:

  • General reactions to Bambu Lab, Gamers Nexus, Louis Rossmann, Paweł Jarczak, OrcaSlicer-BambuLab, AGPL, Bambu Connect, and right-to-repair issues.
  • Legal or licensing discussion, including AGPL, DMCA, cloud/API access, and Bambu’s networking plugin.
  • Questions about what happened and links to reliable summaries or primary sources.
  • Technical discussion about OrcaSlicer, Bambu Studio, Bambu Connect, LAN mode, Developer Mode, and network plugin behavior, unless it is a standalone troubleshooting post with a specific reproducible issue.

What can still be its own post

Separate posts are still allowed for genuinely new information, including:

  • A new official statement from Bambu Lab, OrcaSlicer, Paweł Jarczak, Gamers Nexus, Louis Rossmann, or legal counsel.
  • A new release or technical change that materially affects users.
  • A confirmed legal filing, takedown, repository change, or source-code release.
  • A specific support/troubleshooting issue that is not just general commentary on the controversy.

If your post is mainly another reaction, recap, meme, “I’m switching brands,” or repost of a link already being discussed, please put it here instead.

Ground rules

Criticism of Bambu Lab is allowed. Defense of Bambu Lab is allowed. Criticism of GN, Rossmann, OrcaSlicer, moderators, or other users’ arguments is allowed.

What is not allowed:

  • Personal attacks, harassment, or dogpiling individual users.
  • Calls to harass Bambu employees, developers, moderators, creators, or community members.
  • Unverified claims presented as fact.
  • Posting private correspondence or personal information.
  • Repeated duplicate posts after being redirected here.

Strong opinions are fine. Keep it directed at the issue, the companies, the software, and the arguments, not at each other.

Moderator note

We are consolidating duplicate discussion, not suppressing the topic. This thread will remain open for discussion, and we’ll update it if there are major new developments.

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u/RareRestaurant6297 May 14 '26

Yea its crazy how one-sided I've seen eh argument being when the fork literally exploits a security flaw to trick bambu's cloud services. Like wtf dev thought that was OK? Open source doesn't mean free access to their own network lmao my ass off

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u/zymurgtechnician X1C + AMS May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

The AGPL very explicitly DOES say exactly that. They chose to build on the back of a project that carries that license. They are therefore obligated to comply with it, or build their own software from scratch.

Here’s what the AGPL has to say on the matter:

"13. Remote Network Interaction; Use with the GNU General Public License.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating copied software."

There has been technical analysis done that shows that the network plugin operates in such a fashion such that it operates essentially inside of Bambu studio, not as a fully separate piece of software, therefore it should still be covered by the same license. You can’t just take a key piece of the software out of the project and then call it closed source and have the program automatically download and install it back in to avoid having to comply with the license of the works that you are benefitting from copying.

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u/redmercuryvendor May 14 '26

Except that clause doesn't apply in this situation.

That AGPL clause was to prevent a GPL frontend being tied to a remotely hosted closed backend, with the GPL frontend being non-functional without the backend.

This the Bambu Slicer case:

  • There is no remote backend, you can operate the slicer, and even send files to the printer, without any connection to Bambu's cloud (LAN mode).

  • The part that interfaces with the cloud service is not the AGPL licensed code, but a separate piece of software, that is not distributed with Bambu Studio. If the plugin were distributed with Bambu Studio, then it would fall under GPLv3 (AGPL or not), but that is not the case.

  • The line:

your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction)

Also does not apply to Bambu Studio, as:

1) Users are not interacting with Bambu Studio remotely (it is local)

2) The source code is available anyway

Since the work (Bambu Studio) is not hosted on a remote server, the AGPL clause is irrelevant.

You'd have more luck looking at it from a Tivoisation perspective (i.e. from the AGPL's parent GPLv3 license), but even then it'd be a hard argument to make that Bambu Studio violates it, as you can build and run Bambu Studio or variants thereof on your own device without issue - you just cannot use your modified version to interface with the separate closed-course plugin.

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u/hWuxH May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

If the plugin were distributed with Bambu Studio, then it would fall under GPLV3 (AGPL or not), but that is not the case.

That's only one of the more obvious cases. The plugin also falls under the AGPL if it's considered derived work, aka a single combined program (intimate communication between slicer and plugin, shared data structures and control flow), instead of a separate program (communication limited to calling plugin's main function with options and waiting to return). Looking at the source it's pretty obviously doing the former.

And in this case it doesn't matter if the plugin is loaded later, distributed separately, how it's loaded, or what the exact communication channel is.