Gamers Nexus and Louis Rossmann take on Bambu Lab over OrcaSlicer fork developer

Recently, Bambu Lab issued legal threats against a solo, passionate OrcaSlicer fork developer for using his legally owned 3D printer to run it locally, bypassing Bambu Connect. Out of fear, he took down the GitHub fork.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Bambu Lab has received heat over this from two of the biggest voices in the tech repair industry: consumer rights advocate Louis Rossmann and the PC-hardware review channel–turned–investigative journalism outlet Gamers Nexus, fronted by Steve Burke.

Both YouTubers have rehosted Pawel’s OrcaSlicer-BambuLab code online in support of developer Pawel Jarczak and to pressure Bambu Lab to respond or back down with an apology.

Bambu Lab accused Pawel of “reverse engineering,” threatening DMCA action

Bambu Lab hit Pawel with a cease-and-desist, accusing him of reverse engineering and impersonating them by posing as the official Bambu Studio with a hardcoded version, allegedly threatening the company’s cloud infrastructure and servers.

The company also said he bypassed technical limits and therefore cited Section 1201 of the DMCA, which imposes a five to 10-year federal prison term and a $250,000 fine on offenders. 

Pawel took his repository down out of fear. That’s when Louis Rossmann stepped in, followed later by Gamers Nexus. They obtained Pawel’s permission to host the files themselves and publicly criticized Bambu Lab.

A massive PR problem for Bambu Lab?

Louis Rossmann recently stated on YouTube with an update, “Come after me too. You can sue us all. Maybe you can try to get us all put in federal prison. But maybe you should spend that money making your software a little better or making your users happier.”

Gamers Nexus joined in and published an in-depth article lambasting the company with the opening statement, “Get f*cked, Bambu.” The post further read:

“If Bambu Lab pursues Pawel for his code, which, from what our research suggests, is completely within legal bounds, we will also contribute $10,000 to Pawel’s defense against Bambu Lab.” Basically, Gamers Nexus will match the hypothetical legal fee that Louis Rossmann would pledge in Pawel’s defense. Both YouTubers are putting their money where their mouths are.

They’re also framing the stance against Bambu Lab as a stand against “progressive enclosure,” in which manufacturers and companies use software locks to turn one-time hardware purchases into ongoing services.

To further spite the company, Gamers Nexus stated that they plan to purchase nearly $5,000 worth of Prusa equipment and eliminate their Bambu printers, despite being impressed by the print quality. Gamers Nexus said:

“We chose Bambu Lab H2S machines. We’ve been happy with the quality of the prints, but the company is reminding us of NVIDIA: The product quality is good, but the company is run by a**holes.”

Bambu Lab has yet to respond by either escalating or de-escalating the situation. While the company might be producing great 3D printers on the surface, its approach to slowly locking down its software and treating customers like Pawel poorly has left a seriously sour taste in the tech community.

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