FlashForge Klipper license violation

General Discussion
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In the past FlashForge printers ran a modified version of Marlin and Sailfish. Now all new Flashforge printers are now using a modified version of Klipper I found out. When I request the source they state that “Their firmware is 100% closed source and uses no Klipper code.” Printers I verified so far that use Klipper are as follows.

  1. Guider 3 / Guider 3 Plus / Guider 3 Ultra
  2. Adventurer 5/Adventurer 5 Pro
  3. Anything before that uses Marlin / Sailfish / early Makerbot

Will anything ever be done to these Chinese companies that clearly violate the license and profit off of it?

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Thanks for posting your concerns here.
In fact we really do care about this matter and have the violating companies on our radar. You also find some blurb about this here: Importance of Open Source in 3D Printing and the Consequences of OSS License Infringement

Unfortunately doing something against such violators is far less straight forward than it might seem.
This is a legal question and if the code owner / the project starts taking actions this needs to be well planed and executed.
In the end, if you miss some deadlines or make other mistakes during the process, you might even end up having “approved” their violation.

As mentioned in the linked article above, polite pressure from the community and the users’ awareness to not support such companies is one of the key elements here.

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