Chinese manufactures have been great for the hobby in the short term, but their absolute disregard for the movement's values will be devastating in the long term.
I don't buy 3d printers as I enjoy building and modding them, but if I ever bought one it would be a Prusa, nevermind performance or convenience.

Here is a sloppy iPhone text copy from the photo, for anyone else having trouble reading on a small screen. OP, feel free to add this to your post to make it easy for others to read.

Hi Taylor,

Sorry for my late reply. We just came back from the Chinese New Year holiday.

Thank you for checking in. I really appreciate your patience.

I'd like to share a quick update regarding the S1 Max. At the moment, our promotion team is temporarily short on sample units, so the shipment has not yet been arranged. We are currently coordinating the second round of our promotion plan and reviewing allocation.

Additionally, I want to be transparent about one technical aspect: the 51 Max's open-source structure is currently positioned similarly to the early-stage setup of the Kobra X. I understand that system openness can be an important consideration for you and your audience, so I'd love to better understand your expectations on this point before we proceed further.

Given the current timeline and product positioning, could you kindly let me know whether you would still be interested in moving forward once stock becomes available? Your feedback will help us better evaluate how to arrange the next step.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Best regards. ANYCUBIC Marketing Specialist Anycubic Marketing Team

——————

To: I

Hi l

I'm disappointed that it sounds like you've changed your review plan.

We've been in discussion for months.

It sounds to me that you didn't like my feedback on the license violations for Kobra X.

The truth is that you are obligated to abide by the open source licenses of the software from which you borrow.

If you choose not to include me in your review plan because I took a stand on this topic, I don't think that will reflect well on your brand

I included the feedback Esther gave on this topic in the video so my audience could hear your stance on this first hand.

I am still interested in moving forward but I'd like to see you change your strategy on this.

It's not just important to me, it's important to your customers too.

Thanks, Taylor

Update

Here is the text shown in the video when Taylor first contacted them about the licensing compliance.

Open-source compliance & ecosystem (firmware / slicer)

This is the part we most want to clarify carefully, because the current wording can come across as "we're ignoring GPL," which is not our intent.

Firmware:

For previous products (e.g., S1 / K3), we have already published the portions required under our GPL obligations. For this new product, the open-source release plan is currently being organized and reviewed internally We completely understand the expectation, it's a new launch so it isn't ready immediately, but we do plan to publish in the same way we did for S1/k3.

Slicer:

We are planning a modular open-source release aligned with GPL requirements. The current expected timeline is within ~one quarter.

So the key point we hope comes across is: we're not dismissing GPL, we're in the process of aligning the release for a new product, and we're committing to publish as we've done previously.

We'd like you to make the necessary adjustments to the video content so that it visually and narratively reflects these points accurately

Thanks again, and genuinely, we respect the honest review approach. We just want to make sure the "facts" portions land correctly for your viewers.

Any company that first breaks the law and then threatens those that want to mention it should just be dismantled, toss the owner in jail to cool down. A while

There will be other companies willing to fill the gap it leaves

But we live in the times where this behaviour is not only tolerated, its encouraged

Bambu labs entire business plan was YouTube marketing. YouTube is infomercials.

This is pretty much true of most reviews where manufacturers send stuff to reviewers to review.

Manufacturers think they are getting free paid content. Get upset when their trash products are reviewed objectively.

A lawyer should call this out, usually they care about that. I guess if they couldn't sold their products in the US it would hurt them, I see they are Chinese, and it's not unheard of if a Chinese company just ignores western IP and copyright laws.

i just watched a video of car manufacturers doing the same.

professionalized reviews are bullshit

There is also Prusa, which doesn't lock down their printers for meme sake.

I had no idea. Gonna avoid them in the future.

This is generally the implication with reviewers. You better not be too honest or you're not getting any more review samples. Never trust reviewers. Not even the dude that's supposedly reputable. They all know the game. Use the review to see the hardware and the basic functionality. Ignore everything else.

3D printing is particular bad though. I've been perusing this hobby for the past few years without buying a printer. There's so much shit surrounding this particular topic. The communities are all militant about brands too.

May not be the best place to ask, but I’d love to get into 3D printing.

What’s a good entry level printer that’s OSS friendly?

Was looking at Bambu but they are extremely closed source.

Which order are these emails supposed to be read in? Is the manufacturer replying to the reviewer or vice-versa?

Anycubic has a terrible reputation in the 3D printing community. I remember I had a problem with one of their products years ago and they made warrantee service contingent on giving them a 5 star rating on Amazon.

Anycubic is just a garbage company. They make Bambu labs look like hero’s.

Link to article?