It’s hard to get solid information, but a storm appears to be brewing on KVR Audio. The developer of Wusikstation is allegedly calling it quits — a combination of business and personal reasons, and sales lost to warez. That’s led to an unprecedented solution for some of the users: band together and try to acquire the software, either to continue it commercially or open source it. Why the groundswell of public support? Aside from users who love the instrument, there are plenty of developers who created sounds for this engine; if Wusikstation is gone, so is their work. Some of the KVR threads have been deleted, and it’s not clear how serious this group is or whether they’ll succeed. If they do, it could change the business of independent music development — instead of software falling off the face of the earth (see Opcode), users might wind up owning it.
Let me know if you know any more about this.