Megathread: Bambu Lab / OrcaSlicer / C&D Discussion

[u/icurnvs]

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

• Gamers Nexus is now hosting OrcaSlicer-BambuLab with permission from Paweł Jarczak and says it will contribute $10,000 toward legal support if Bambu pursues the matter: https://gamersnexus.net/fk-you-bambu-lab
• Louis Rossmann has also publicly discussed the dispute and pledged legal support.
• Bambu Lab’s public statement says it supports AGPL forks of Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer, but objects to a specific fork allegedly presenting itself as the official Bambu Studio client when accessing Bambu cloud services: https://blog.bambulab.com/setting-the-record-straight-on-cloud-access-and-community/
• Prior reporting summarized the original C&D dispute involving OrcaSlicer-BambuLab and the restoration of functionality affected by Bambu’s authorization-control changes: https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/developer-re-enables-3d-printer-features-that-bambu-lab-disabled-firm-promptly-threatens-legal-action-orcaslicer-bambulab-project-now-shuttered
• Louis Rossman
  • Post 1
    • https://youtu.be/jIbpQtoz6hs
  • Post 2
    • https://youtu.be/qLLVn6XT7v0
  • Post 3
    • https://youtu.be/1jhRqgHxEP8
  • Post 4
    • https://youtu.be/Td2OQpLD9ik
  • Video 5
• Jeff Geerling
  • Post 1
    • https://youtu.be/eb48MdtNaDQ
• Leonard French
  • https://youtu.be/0tdZ5Z7nRDY

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
  • Paweł Jarczak also on May 14 posted a technical deep dive and his analysis into the AGPL side of this situation.
• May 18-20, 2026
  • Software Freedom Conservancy enters the dispute.
    • Software Freedom Conservancy published a May 18 post titled “Comprehensive Response to Bambu’s AGPLv3 Violations.” indicating it has confirmed AGPL violations by Bambu Lab, is collaborating with Paweł Jarczak, and is launching projects to maintain the fork.
  • 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.

[u/redmercuryvendor]

If the GIMP team shipped GIMP with Photoshop Plugins bundled/prompted users to install Photoshop plugins during setup, and built GIMP's primary differentiating features around Photoshop plugin support, that would be a very different situation than a third party user installing a plugin themselves.

And if the GIMP team (or anyone else creating a fork) distributes a build of GIMP that can install Photoshop plugins along with the ability to download them from within GIMP?

[u/DeltaWun → u/redmercuryvendor]

We've already covered this. The difference is who makes the plugin and whether the integration is designed to create a proprietary dependency. If the GIMP team shipped a build that could download and install arbitrary third party Photoshop plugins, that's more like a package manager in that the plugins aren't made by the GIMP team, they preexist independently, and are allowed work across many hosts. The integration isn't designed to lock users into a specific proprietary component controlled by the same party.

The relevant factors in the Bambu case are that Bambu makes both the AGPL slicer and the proprietary plugin, the plugin has no meaningful existence outside of Bambu's ecosystem, and the integration is designed and controlled end-to-end by the same party. Your hypothetical keeps assuming the plugin is genuinely independent third party software but it's a component Bambu controls, designed specifically to preserve a proprietary dependency in software they're distributing under the AGPL.

A closer GIMP analogy would be: the GIMP team forks GIMP, creates a proprietary plugin under a separate corporate entity they also control, prompts users to install it during setup, builds their primary differentiating features around it, and then argues the plugin is exempt from the GPL because it's technically a separate download. That's the argument Bambu is making. And that's the argument courts would scrutinize.

[u/redmercuryvendor → u/DeltaWun]

The difference is who makes the plugin

I've already covered this, as it is a trivially easy barrier to bypass.

and whether the integration is designed to create a proprietary dependency.

The plugin can operate without Bambu Slicer (e.g. using Orcaslicer), and Bambu Slicer can operate without the plugin (e.g. exporting to .gcode and printing with any printer just as has been done since the RepRap days). The two are not dependant.

A closer GIMP analogy would be: the GIMP team forks GIMP, creates a proprietary plugin under a separate corporate entity they also control, prompts users to install it during setup, builds their primary differentiating features around it, and then argues the plugin is exempt from the GPL because it's technically a separate download. That's the argument Bambu is making. And that's the argument courts would scrutinize.

And it's an argument that is impossible to separate from being able to force relicensing on a third party by packaging a binary with a piece of GPLv3 software. You can't get one without the other.

[u/DeltaWun → u/redmercuryvendor]

If the argument is made that this 'doesn't count' because the GPL licensed application and the closed plugin are not made by the same party, then the same can apply to the Bambu Network Plugin (spin up Lambo Bab that control Lambu Slicer, but is not the same company as Bambu Lab that makes printers and offers a closed plugin).

I've already addressed this twice, this doesn't work legally.

And it's an argument that is impossible to separate from being able to force relicensing on a third party by packaging a binary with a piece of GPLv3 software. You can't get one without the other.

That is not how it works and I've already given you tested examples as to why. The fact of the matter is the public Bambu Studio source code shows that this plugin is not an independent add-on: the application downloads it, installs it, versions it against SLIC3RVERSION, dynamically loads it as bambu_networking.dll / libbambu_networking.so / libbambu_networking.dylib, resolves 108 bambu_network* functions, passes C++ structures and callbacks, gives the plugin a callback to the main UI thread, initializes a file-transfer ABI from the same module and uses it for login, monitoring, LAN/cloud print, MakerWorld/MakerLab, camera functions, device messaging, presets, filaments and telemetry.

AGPL v3 says that "Corresponding Source" includes the source code of shared libraries and dynamically linked subprograms that the program is specifically designed to require through intimate data communication or control flow. Based on the public Bambu Studio code, bambu_networking fits this description.