Quote -
If one desires continued support and development, money is not a bad thing to have.

 

This, right here. 

Any software development project that isn't a pure open-source effort is driven by money. Even many projects which are open-source are funded quite heavily by folks who benefit directly from the resulting product. 

No money? You have a couple of options, both of which require a miracle:

• The first is to go full-on open source, and hope for enough interested developers, with enough time and talent to spare. You'll also need a dedicated (and with no money, really dedicated) project leader, or lead team.

• The second is to hope for angel investors or venture funding, and a business plan sufficient to get them to cut loose with the money.

• Simply let it float around as freeware/abandonware until someone shows enough interest in it to purchase/buy it, like Poser was in the mid 1990s after Metacreation's demise.

Just the way it is, folks... you simply cannot level a charge of 'OAMG they're only in it for the money!', because both houses are equally guilty of that... they have to be. Poser's owning company has an obligation to its shareholders to do so, and DAZ' very survival as a company requires that they make an income as well.

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Quote - Heck for the money they've spent developing DS, maybe Daz could have bought it.

DAZ already owns half of the Metacreations' original stable: Bryce and Carrara (formerly RayDream), respectively.

Corel owns Canoma, and keeps it in a codebase graveyard. I'd call it abandonware, but since Corel still owns the rights to it, the term wouldn't be technically correct.

This leaves Poser, which has had a far more interesting life to it. Smith Micro owns it now,.

I disagree with the idea of DAZ buying Poser as a good idea for the Poser-exclusive community. (I know, I know - gasp, right? Well, bear with me...)

You'd think it would certainly behoove DAZ to buy the thing if it could. OTOH, for Poser users (exclusively), this would be what is known as a Bad Thing(tm). Why? Because aside from the IP rights and salvable code that could be scraped out and put into D|S (dynamics, Firefly engine perhaps, some morph, joint, and materials editing bits)... they'd have no real use for it as a whole package, and it would end up as Bryce did - slowly left to die of old age, but kept around for those who still prefer and love it. Maybe make a few plugins for it to export content and JPs to D|S and/or Carrara.

BUT!

Yes, but...

...let's stop tape right there. Poser has a healthy life left in it. Tehre is no indication that Smith Micro is even considering such a thing... and we leave it at that.