May 23, 2026
Print me a scandal
BambuStudio has been violating PrusaSlicer AGPL license since their fork
3D printer feud explodes as fans say the real scandal is nobody can stop it
TLDR: Josef Prusa says BambuStudio has been hiding parts of software it was supposed to share, and he linked that fight to bigger fears about Chinese data laws. Commenters split fast: some say this proves the rules are weak, while others think buyers and governments won’t care as long as the printers keep working.
The 3D printing world is having a full-on reality show moment after Prusa boss Josef Prusa accused rival BambuStudio of breaking the rules of open-source software for years. In plain English: Prusa says Bambu took shared community-made code, built on top of it, and then kept key parts hidden when the license says they should have been shared. Josef didn’t stop there — he tied the whole thing to broader fears about Chinese data laws, arguing that if a company is based in China, government access to data may be impossible to rule out. That turned a software spat into a much bigger trust panic.
And wow, the comments did not stay calm. One camp was brutally cynical: if the product is good, many buyers simply won’t care, and governments won’t do much either. Another group zoomed out and declared this a depressing reminder that open-source licenses can be easy to ignore and painfully expensive to enforce. In other words, the crowd’s hottest take wasn’t just “Bambu bad,” but “the whole system may be toothless.”
Of course, the internet also internet-ed. One commenter cackled at the irony that the post was being viewed through XCancel, turning the drama into a side joke about platforms and mirrors. Others pushed back on the panic, warning that people were mixing real license issues with giant geopolitical claims. So yes: it’s part legal fight, part security scare, part comment-section cage match — and the crowd seems split between outrage, resignation, and meme mode.
Key Points
- •Josef Prusa alleged that BambuStudio has violated the AGPL license of PrusaSlicer since the fork and that a networking binary black box remains part of the issue.
- •The post lists five Chinese laws and regulations from 2017 to 2023 that Prusa says together define how Chinese companies must cooperate with state intelligence and data-access demands.
- •Prusa said the Data Security Law gives China extraterritorial reach over data tied to national security or public interests, meaning jurisdiction follows the company rather than server location.
- •He wrote that under the 2021 vulnerability regulation, discovered software vulnerabilities must be reported to MIIT within 48 hours and then passed to CNNVD, which he said is operated by the Ministry of State Security's 13th Bureau.
- •The post concludes that these rules create a system with no neutral exit for Chinese companies with broad reach and notes that 3D printing became strategic for China in 2020 and later joined the Made in China 2025 plan.