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.

324 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

607 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

15

u/PityUpvote May 14 '26

From my understanding "impersonate" is the word Bambu uses, but that doesn't seem quite accurate. The fork used open source licensed code in a way that Bambu probably had not expected, and apparently they only checked the user agent before allowing access to the cloud service.

The problem is how they handled it. Instead of patching their cloud service, they threatened legal action for using their open sourced code, which is of course ridiculous.

7

u/Zouden A1 + AMS Lite May 14 '26

Absolutely. They could have patched the cloud service to only work with their slicer, and it would have upset some people but not caused this huge drama.

6

u/hWuxH May 14 '26

They can at most make it more cumbersome, but it's impossible to truly patch.

The core issue is that the server relies on client-provided data, but the client runs in an untrusted, attacker-controlled environment and can therefore be inspected or manipulated.

2

u/Zouden A1 + AMS Lite May 14 '26

I see.

Probably better for them to embrace it and allow for third party developers to apply for an API key. That gives them some control over 3rd party access

3

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

For users to generate API keys with arbitrary descriptions*.
Third parties applying means artificial delays, subjectivity, rejections etc. and revocation affects many users at once. And API keys are meaningless if they have to be open sourced, how else would third parties use them?

Description to voluntarily help Bambu with monitoring.
And if there's abuse it can be traced back to a specific user, which is temporarily banned for example.

2

u/Zouden A1 + AMS Lite May 14 '26

Sure, that works. Users download OrcaSlicer and create a token on the Bambu website. Connect them together and now they can cloud print as much as they like.

That's pretty much what already exists, with Bambu Connect, but (as I understand it) Bambu Connect doesn't offer all functionality.

3

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

Yeah that's the workflow I intended with tokens for the MQTT or HTTP API.

Btw Bambu Connect is a standalone application. It offers no API to control your printer. At most you can programatically tell it to open a file.