We'd like to address Roy Sigurd's claim, recently posted on his blog, which alleges that Bambu Lab, through its slicer Bambu Studio, failed to release the source code belonging to a plugin used in Bambu Studio which communicates with Bambu Cloud Service, and therefore not abiding by AGPL license.
We have spent a considerable amount of time consulting with our lawyers in order to ensure that we are in full compliance with AGPL when including our independent closed-source networking plugin to Bambu Studio. Enhancing AGPL software with a third-party library, service, or software that is independent and distributed separately is a common approach within the IT industry. We have ensured, through experts within the industry, who have reviewed all the details, that our approach is fully compliant with AGPL license.
The plug-in in question is a simple standalone interface that helps Bambu Studio to communicate with our private infrastructure, such as our cloud service. Bambu Studio does not depends on this package and is distributed independently.
We are constantly trying to contribute to the community and the 3D Printing industry. Bambu Studio as a full function slicer is fully opensourced under AGPL. In fact, several features that were introduced in Bambu Studio have already been embraced and used by other companies, allowing a larger audience to benefit from them. It's a win-win for all those involved.
We are always open to constructive criticism, or held accountable for our shortcomings, such as the security flaw brought up by Roy himself, which we made sure to act upon as quickly as possible. This is what helps us grow and learn, in order to become the best version of ourselves and a company that the community can trust.
However, being called upon to address accusations without grounds and based on assumptions, not only hurts us as a company, but also hurts the community and the 3D Printing industry as a whole. These types of accusations create uncertainty for all those wanting to embrace the open-source concept, fearing repercussions at every step, and therefore setting back the progress achieved by so many and enjoyed by so many more.
