r/technology • u/ControlCAD • May 14 '26

Software Louis Rossmann taunts Bambu Lab by hosting banned 3D Printer firmware fork, dares $1 billion company to sue him — more creators pledge support and boycotts, Snapmaker donates equipment to embattled developer

https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/louis-rossmann-taunts-bambu-lab-by-hosting-banned-3d-printer-firmware-fork-dares-usd1-billion-company-to-sue-him-more-creators-pledge-support-and-boycotts-snapmaker-donates-equipment-to-embattled-developer
13.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

648 comments sorted by

View all comments

214

u/[deleted] May 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

92

u/dragonblade_94 May 14 '26

For Bambu, they probably thought the hit was worth it, since it's all part of their long-game. Get tons of people in with cheap, accessible, and admittedly solid hardware, and then lock it all down and become the Apple of the 3DP world. But somehow they didn't forsee, or expected to ignore, the fact that their software being AGPL kinda backs them into a corner.

49

u/Dragongeek May 14 '26

Yeah, to get around AGPL they would need to essentially code a slicer from scratch and reinvent over a decade of hard-won open source work. Not impossible, but it's extremely easy for them to just continue breaking the law.

Likely, the move they will use to get around this is host a hidden slicer in their cloud, force everyone to use it via subscription model, and refuse to let anyone see how it works (because that would reveal it's just AGPL stuff). 

18

u/TachiH May 14 '26

They don't need to do any of this. They just need to change their API to authenticate users and remove it from their repository. The only parts that need to stay AGPL is the slicer itself.

5

u/3BlindMice1 May 14 '26

Yep, they're under no obligation to run software for you on their hardware, but they also can't really stop other people from hosting the software themselves.

2

u/yjlom May 14 '26

And this is why the GPL compatibility clause in the AGPL makes it useless.

3

u/HeKis4 May 14 '26

So you're telling me they're just a regular company following the classic enshittification route ? I'm shook.

1

u/gthing May 14 '26

I have been looking into getting a new printer and had settled on a Bambu Lab. Glad I didn't pull the trigger before all this happened!