cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/opensource/p/1823177/3d-printer-reviewers-being-honest-in-this-industry-will-put-you-out-of-a-job
This is the emails between the YouTuber YGK3D and Anycubic, it seems like they won’t send 3D printers to reviewers who mention their GPL3 license violations.
tl;dr Anycubic uses open-source software for their firmware, but doesn’t make it public as per license agreement, and they don’t seem to be friendly to anyone who calls this out.
More info: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxIMpZTkXqFo0H6pDwhZpdYqMYvLhPvWA5?lc=UgxA-4LYvwrnonXuXsZ4AaABAg
I’m glad to see people going public with these sorts of shenanigans.
The thing about maker communities is that makers generally appreciate the importance and ethics of “not stealing other people’s shit,” and putting companies on blast for it does in this community hurt their bottom line.
And when it hurts their bottom line, that drives action.
Elegoo wouldn’t release their firmware for the Centauri Carbon claiming it was proprietary, until someone proved it was just modified Klipper, and therefore in breach of Klipper’s license. And the community backlash was strong enough that Elegoo were compelled to release it.
So yeah, do the good work and keep making these companies accountable.