Josef Prusa Alleges BambuStudio AGPL Violations and Links Chinese 3D Printing to State Surveillance Laws
By
Tomte
Sesame, salt, and substance. A flagship bake.
Summary
Josef Prusa, founder of Prusa Research, alleges that BambuStudio has been violating the AGPL license of PrusaSlicer since their fork, with concerns about a networking binary black box. The article then pivots to a detailed analysis of five Chinese laws (National Intelligence Law 2017, Cryptography Law 2020, Data Security Law 2021, Counter-Espionage Law revision 2023, and Network Product Security Vulnerability regulation 2021) that together create a framework where Chinese companies are legally compelled to cooperate with state intelligence, provide decryption keys, submit to extraterritorial data jurisdiction, report vulnerabilities to state security, and treat industrial data as espionage-relevant. The post suggests this legal environment may force Chinese companies like BambuLab to compromise user privacy and security, and notes that 3D printing has been designated as strategically important to China's "Made in China 2025" plan.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledBambuStudio has been violating PrusaSlicer AGPL license since their fork, with the same networking binary black box in question today. Why are they willing to burn the goodwill over it?
Cooperation is required, encryption is real but the spare keys live at the ministry, jurisdiction follows the company across borders, industrial data is in scope, and discovered vulnerabilities flow to an intelligence agency
Together they describe a system with no neutral exits.
Each law on its own, interesting, okay... Read them together, and add any Chinese company with big reach to the mix you get the complete picture.
3D printing became strategic for China in 2020 and joined the 'Made in China 2025' plan soon after.
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