Mastodawn

Bradley M. Kühn

👀 what I've been doing past 12 days:
https://sfconservancy.org/news/2026/may/18/bambu-studio-3d-printer-agpl-violation-response/
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2026/may/17/incomplete-corresponding-source-code-copyleft-agpl/
https://f.sfconservancy.org/baltobu

#Disturbing that Bambu behaved this way. They're ≈37% of #3Dprinting market. My discussions w/ experts indicate that Bambu leapfrogged *precisely* b/c they violate #AGPLv3.
#baltobu initiative is a sprint right now, but in the next few weeks, it'll become a marathon. It will take us time, but we will liberate the users' right to repair that #Bambu took away.

#copyleft #OpenSource #SFC

Comprehensive Response to Bambu's AGPLv3 Violations

Software Freedom Conservancy (“SFC”) announces a new initiative regarding the software right to repair for users and consumers of 3D printers manufactured by Bambu Lab. After recent news of violations of the Affero General Public License, version 3 (“AGPLv3”), SFC staff began a comprehensive AGPLv3 compliance investigation of both the userspace software and firmware on Bambu's devices. While the investigation is ongoing, two specific AGPLv3 violations have been confirmed.

Software Freedom Conservancy

Personal rule of thumb:

If a company is sponsoring every YouTuber and their grandma, stay far away.

That kind of ad budget only comes from companies with seriously exploitative long-term plans.

Bradley M. Kühn 1d ago

Yes, ∃ much gossip in the #3dprinting community that #Bambu is not only sponsoring many YouTubers, but also they appear to be one of the few companies that is moderation control of their own fora on 3ʳᵈ-party platforms such as reddit.

While I hope folks will chose a vendor that treats the community & their own customers better than #BambuLab does, #SFC has always been realistic about #copyleft violations: users already have devices & the deserve adjudication of their rights.

Agreed. It's frustrating to see everyone jumping on the bambu bandwagon (I'm talking about people not being paid to hawk their wares) just because "is easy."

OTOH, I ran an apt update on my SOVOL 3D printer and completely bricked it, and had to buy a special eMMC adapter from aliexpress to re-flash it 🤣

People miiiight just take #OpenHardware more seriously if it wasn't always so casually hobby-grade. :P

And when even guys like Josef Prusa start backing away from Open Hardware because the China-manufcatured knockoffs are eating them alive... man. :/

We wouldn't need to have such vociferously "counter-cultural" movements like Open Hardware if our governments were worth their salt and actually forced companies to be decent.

(But don't get me wrong, I'd still love Open Hardware and FOSS for their own sake, even if companies like John Deere were forced to act more like Prusa Research)

@rl_dane @bkuhn

MNT Reform is a great example of not-hobby-grade open hardware, but it's freaking expensive

And yeah, it _is_ expensive to make open hardware, Prusa's decision there is understandable even if I think it's probably not the right move even just _for Prusa_.

I've got an Ender 3, which isn't even open hardware but which I got for free. It's... acceptable. Barely.

You can make stuff with it, technically, if you're willing to treat "keeping it functional" more seriously than even most, say, Arch users breaking their installs :P

The things require _constant_ physical maintenance and it's a massive PITA if you don't have an actual major use for it

I had an Ender 3. Well, I still have it, it's been sitting in the garage for six years. XD

That thing was CURSED. I replaced almost everything in it. XD

@rl_dane @bkuhn

I've pritned some extra parts but I need to fully reassemble it Again Again Again Again Again because it's nowhere near level, and I need to replace all the rubber feet :/

@rl_dane @bkuhn

and the fan is constantly rattling. Probably should replace that too but no money for that shit right now. If I can't do it myself or for free or using PLA as a print, I can't really justify doing it.

@rl_dane @bkuhn

I really think what open hardware needs is NOT more new projects.

It's refinement of many of what's already there.

It's open. Stop doing it from scratch. Take the Tangara and fix problems instead of making a new music player; design a Reform-compatible lightweight case instead of a new laptop; iterate on SOVOL instead of trying to replace it.

Open hardware has the same problem as open software... It's more "fun" to do something new than fix something old. 😄

@rl_dane @bkuhn

Maybe, but hardware is much harder to fix once made than software. Open software can just issue a bug fix. Open hardware is fixed at release -or not fixed, as the case may be ;)

kabel42 11h ago

@pixx @rl_dane @bkuhn you can do some degree of modding on existing hardware, but if you make enough changes the software is no longer compatible and you can just do it right. Also maybe easier to just start from scratch unless the old hardware is really well documented

Ethan Black 1d ago

Interesting. I guess they distrust how their project might spread via word-of-mouth so much that they overly invest in ads?

I mean, this is blitz marketing, pushing their name front and center and burning through lots of ad money knowing they'll make it up again in ⛓️⛓️☹️⛓️⛓️

Ethan Black 1d ago

Yeah, that's true....

maybeanerd 23h ago

@bkuhn great work on this! It's past time we do something about bambulab and the shit they've been pulling.
Started a yearly pledge for FSC now as well - I don't have time to work on more sideprojects, but I can at least give some resources to those who do