Bambu Lab Sent a Cease-and-Desist. The AGPL Might Send One Back.

A Polish developer published an OrcaSlicer fork that restored what Bambu Lab's January 2025 firmware update broke. Days later, Bambu's lawyers came calling — and the cease-and-desist they sent exposed something the company probably didn't want examined too closely. In this video I walk through the Bambu Lab / OrcaSlicer dispute as it stands in May 2026, and what it actually means under U.S. and EU law. We cover Bambu's "Authorization Control" firmware, the leaked RSA private key that surfaced within 48 hours, why DMCA Section 1201(f) and the Sixth Circuit's Lexmark decision are bad news for Bambu's strongest legal theory, and the AGPL counterpunch hiding inside Bambu Studio's own source code. Then we zoom out to John Deere, HP, the EU Right to Repair Directive, and the question worth sitting with: do you actually own the smart devices you've already paid for, or are you permanently leasing the right to turn them on? 00:00 - Introduction 01:00 - Bambu v. Orcaslicer - Again 04:58 - Authorization Controls 08:47 - Community Response 10:50 - Who has standing 13:43 - Similar to John Deere 15:19 - Europe Contradicts Itself 18:17 - Lawful Masses is community supported Want to do something about it? I built a tool to make contacting your representatives easy: postcardstocongress.org. Use code Just5Dollars to send postcards to all three of your federal reps for $5. Support the channel: patreon.com/ljfrench Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/piratelawyer.com Disclaimer: This video is general legal commentary, not legal advice. I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. #RightToRepair #BambuLab #OrcaSlicer #3DPrinting #OpenSource #AGPL #DMCA #CopyrightLaw