Re: The ethics of software emulations?

[Jeffrey Larson <jeff@zonemobius.com>]

Briefly to address the original question...

 > Am I ripping off the owners of the etch-a-sketch? Am I "reverse
 > engineering" the etch-a-sketch?

No, though if the title bar of the program said "Art's Etch-a-Sketch"
you would guilty of a trademark violation unless you reached
a licensing agreement with Ohio Art to use the name.

This is the one legitimate criticism that I think could be made of
Mobius and SooperLoper.  We are to some extent making use of the EDP
brand name to promote our products.  I have never been told not to,
but now that there are rumors of a VST version of the original EDP
software I'm going to make some changes to my web site, documentation,
and user interface terminology to avoid trademark confusion.

I know there are people on this list that think I should be
giving Aurisis money just because I've implemented concepts like
"Multiply" in Mobius.  We can argue about whether what I do is
"ethical" or "respectful" or even "in poor taste", but one thing it
isn't is illegal.  I'll try to write up a better explanation of that
when I have more time.

 > There are currently many software emulations of classic pieces of
 > music gear out there. Do people think this is a bad thing?

No!

Jeff