Re: The ethics of software emulations?

[Jeffrey Larson <jeff@zonemobius.com>]

 > I think there's a case (that has been made to me explicitly,  
actually)
 > that even a free product like Mobius hurts the income of the EDP or
 > other developers

I don't believe Mobius has had any significant effect on sales of EDP  
hardware.
By far the majority of my users had no intention of ever shelling
out $800 for an EDP, let alone $1600 for a stereo pair, or $12,800
for eight stereo pairs.  Others that could afford an EDP chose not to
because they wanted a pure laptop solution for other reasons, or they
wanted some of the many things Mobius can do that the EDP can't.

I think a case can be made that the existence of free software makes
it difficult for someone to charge money for similar software.  I'm
sorry but that's just life in the software business.  If you want to
make money you need to make something that is substantially better
or different than what is already out there.

The analogy isn't exactly right, but moving from the hardware world to
the software world has some similarities with the shift from the old
"studio system" of making records to the "self-produced file sharing"
environment  we have today.  The business models are totally different
in software than they are in hardware.  It is harder to make money,
and it is harder to have "rock stars" since there are many more people
that are able to compete.

Jeff