These exact clones of vintage HP calcs are on my Android phone...

[Vincent Weber]

(10-24-2018 03:18 PM)Eric Rechlin Wrote:  My main concern about the "go" emulators is that they use HP intellectual property (ROMs) to function, many of which aren't even properly licensed, but then cost money, so the author is profiting tens of thousands of dollars off of stealing HP's IP. If they were open-source, even if he charged a nominal (say, $1) fee for the app download, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

I quite don't understand this statement:
1) No copyrighted ROM are provided with any go emulator. Only those that were either before copyright (<1982) or for which HP explictely gives the ROM away (HP-48/49);
2) I know exactly the amount of countless hours Olivier have put to write complete emulators from scratch (not ripping off emu48 as some do). Even though I put time on my side to help him with beta-testing, I bought every single one of his emulators, and I feel that this money was well deserved, I am a happy customer;
3) I know exactly Olivier sales figures, and they are nowhere near "tens of thousands of dollars". As he says, it is mainly paying for cigarettes... This is a very niche market. Only go41cx has significant sales, and there is huge work behind it. Same of i41cs+ by Antonio on IOS - great work, well-deserved money.

Some people like Christoph and Tomas Okken give away great software, which took them countless hours of work, for free. It is great that they do so, but there is no obligation to do so, neither legally nor morally. I personally feel that every significant work deserves a salary, and I am happy to pay, so that I can have requests.

If I follow your logic, selling the HP Museum DVD is ripping off HP. Whereas I believe that the people who took countless hours to scan manuals and collect info deserve money. Oh well...