EClark1894 posted at 7:42PM Wed, 17 July 2019 - #4357269

And while Studio might be free, it is not open source.

No, it's not. But imagine if Poser was.

Keep in mind that if DAZ goes out of business tomorrow for whatever reason, users will eventually lose the use of their content that relies on Studio, once the software stops running. I believe the license even prohibits anyone from patching it or reverse engineering it, even just to keep it going a little longer. Every dollar a customer spends in DAZ's store makes them just that much more dependent on DAZ, because there is no real alternative. (And here I'm talking about the average user, not the super users and content creators who routinely export assets between multiple applications.)

Now imagine a FOSS-based Poser, with a license that says something to the effect that -- in the event of the unforseen -- users are free to edit and recompile the software to keep it running on their machines, or even supports the idea of a larger effort by a different group with the resources to keep Poser alive or even bring it back from the dead. Is that really such an outrageous idea?

Remember that Blender.org is confident enough to make their own code base public, even though that means a competitor like Autodesk can get a copy and pick it apart to their advantage. And Blender is constantly growing in terms of both capability and user base, and they even have a store that sells books, tutorial DVDs, and swag to support their efforts in addition to the funding they receive from the community. This IS possible.