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Looper's Delight
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Of course, Art, you're not ripping off anyone because what you're doing is for educational purposes. 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, but they didn't invent the concept either, just digitized it and refined it (considerably - and they might have "look and feel" type claims that would be considered valid). if they think there are sufficient grounds to pursue legal remedies, that's up to them - i'm not a lawyer. But still, it's up to them to worry about it - not on me to take sides, i'm not personal friends with any of the players in this game (and if *they're* not complaining vocally and publicly, I don't see any reason for anyone else to even think about it). But i think the high-tech patent/IP thing is out of control. if you need to sell hw to make a living (and it is a *far* better living than you could generally make selling sw, where theft is rife, perceived value is bizarrely low, and there are no barriers to competition whatsoever), then you have to figure out a way to provide something that people cannot get through sw. guitar players seem to inherently prefer hw - but that's balanced by its frequently high cost. if you can continue to make that skew to your favor, then you win. if not, you win less - but who guarantees anyone income for life from one product? Personally, I know someday I'm going to get a DX7 sw clone so I can recreate a piece I wrote for classical midi guitar in 1987. I'd love to get it free, but I'll pay for it - as I do for all my sw - if it's a commercial product. It's not on me to investigate whether or not they have legal licensing agreements with John Chowning, Stanford, and Yamaha. Look, we like to think the world is a fair place and our IP is safe. My sw is ripped off globally every day, but that's life and actually, that's not why I can't make a living from it (that's a whole 'nother saga). I put in a technological fix to stem the bleeding, which mostly worked (tho I despise having to devote more effort to security than features). But no-one is going to defend my rights except myself - the world is way past the law now, and features + security are the manufacturers' only defense. I don't get exercised over all this because I think about other laws that are routinely broken without second thought - particularly traffic laws and speed limits. Does anyone get really upset over this? Breaking these laws cost lives... how silly the IP laws tsuris seems in comparison. My conclusion: common law trumps written law, get over it.