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 have Bambu lab A1 now. Have had ultimaker and various creality printers. Bambu lab is by far the best in terms of print quality, ease of use, reliance and speed. Isn’t this the real reason why it has become popular and not them pressuring reviewers to only do good reviews?
What drama or problems is there with Bambu?
It’s DRM’d bullshit that gives a big fat 🖕to the entire open and collaborative spirit of 3D printing. The hobby was built on open source and open hardware (see e.g. RepRap) and Bambu is trying to destroy that.
I don’t give a fuck how good the print quality and whatnot is; It could give you a handjob with every print and it would still be completely categorically unacceptable!
Chinese company capitalizing off of foreign socialist structures for profit? Say it ain‘t so!
Wasn’t following the guy, but I will now. Fewer and fewer people in yt 3D printing space remain that care about the ethics of the companies selling this and more and more are just bambu sponsored.
Bambu sponsorships are a fucking plague.
Sounds like you need Morgan & Morgan
I want to get into 3D printing before it’s outlawed and I’ve been gravitating to Bambu because I’m novice enough that marketing works. Where should I be looking? Price is a consideration but not my first.
Strongly suggest not going with Bambu, they have a history of attempting to start a walled garden ecosystem, the only thing that has stopped them thus far is backlash.
Yeah ironically one of the reasons I used an Anycubic, because while they may have issues with FOSS compliance, the firmware I did load on there (Rinkhals) isn’t
IMO, toolchangers are the future trend in 3d printing. Snapmaker U1 is the current hype due to being relatively cheap and using open source klipper based firmware. Other than that, Prusa has a toolchanger, I would prefer them over Bambu any day. But me personally, I will either wait till U1 becomes cheaper or wait for a diy OSS solution like Voron with IDX once it comes out. But that definitely shouldn’t be anyone’s first printer.
Look for a used Prusa.
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.
The most trustworthy reviews are always those where the reviewers just bought the products. Even when it’s not as blatant as it is here, there’s always a motivation to not anger the company too much when you get their products early and for free.
The most trustworthy reviews are always those where the reviewers just bought the products.
So much this. One reason why there are so super few honest Bambu Lab reviews out there, they understood how to do PR through influencers and used their VC money to send thousands of devices everywhere for basically free (and keep doing so) to build an overly positive lifestyle image. Those few who do actual deep dives and get cut off from new free devices simply drown in the masses. Meanwhile their printers melt themselves and the A1 Mini apparently likes to catch fire.
Anycubic is a whole different beast, they’ve known to basically steal stuff for many years (like when they took Prusa’s first-gen MMU design and successfully patented a slightly different design). Shit like this is one of the reasons Prusa is meddling with new licenses in the first place.
Creality now went IPO and is blasting every corner of their products with AI. Elegoo also already broke licenses to close off their devices.
Pretty sure vendors like Snapmaker, Sovol or QIDI also have done a sufficient amount of shit.
Capitalism will always be a shitshow like this, and it’s annoying. Ethical or even lawful behaviour shouldn’t be something you have to be able to afford, it should be the fucking default because it’s made free and beneficial to everyone.
Who isn’t shitty and affordable at the same time in the 3D printing space?
Used Prusa.
vendors like Snapmaker
so far Snapmaker seems to have a good trackrecord, and has earned the trust of many, as their successful u1 kickstarter showed.
they promised to opensource large parts of their by end of next month. Lets see how that turns out https://support.snapmaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/33344279396759-Snapmaker-U1-FAQ#h_01K4VWF124M7HRBZEB4SS4EM09
What firmware does the Snapmaker U1 use, and is it open source?
The Snapmaker U1 runs on Klipper firmware, with Moonraker for API management. Both have been modified by Snapmaker and are scheduled to be released as open source before March 2026…
From the provided link, running out of days to keep that promise.
Cant they be sued due to failing to fulfill GPL3 license requirements?
Yes they can. But, most open source projects don’t have that kind of money. Lawyers ain’t cheap. And location of the lawsuit matters too. It’s really hard to sue a Chinese company in China.
China is a shitshow, legally speaking. The Chinese government basically encourages Chinese companies to steal international IP. If you sell any products to China, you can expect them to steal any novel ideas inside. There’s no recourse even for big companies.
I wish the EU (and US) would block the sale of products that violate GPT3 licensees.
That’s the easiest solution I see to this problem.
I’ve looked into this from a UK perspective, partly because I’m in the market for a new 3d printer. Usual disclaimer that I’m not a lawyer, this is just a summary of what I found in my research, it could be completely wrong.
You can usually sue a company in a local court if they do business in your country, enforcement can obviously be an issue but if they have a local warehouse it can be enforced there.
In the UK there is a specific small claims track for small IP claims, it’s not expected for you to have a barrister, and cost orders are rare, so if you lose you don’t normally have to pay the opponents costs. This court can still grant injunctions, such as requiring them to release the source code, or preventing them from selling any printers.
The customer probably has standing to bring a claim as a third party beneficiary, this doesn’t seem to be entirely settled.
