Hmmm. It's almost midnight. Time to log on..

I check my EMail - I like to reply and clear all my EMail by the day (obtw.
I lost quite a few EMails over the last week, if you wrote to me and didn't
get a reply, please send the EMail again).

Sometimes, among the EMails, I find the question: "What do you want for the
stereo versions of ITWAV?".

Involuntarily I groan. I reply with the standard US$30 for nonprofit use and
sometimes I even remember to include my address or bank account details.

In the mean time, I wait for a reply. Sometimes there's no reply, sometimes
there's a polite reply, affirmative or negative... And then sometimes I get
a reply like this:

> FUCK U MOTHA FUCKA.. GO GET A JOB!!! UR SO POOR, U CAN"T EVEN FEED YOUR
> FAMILY!!!!!! PIS OFF, BACK OFF... I GOT OTHER THINGS TO DO THAN
> BABYSITTING!!!
>
> U DON"T GET IT MOTHA FUCKA!!!

That was several weeks ago. Today, I got this one from daled@shani.net
(please feel free to write to this address.)

> i would like to tell you to Suck my dick.. Cuz...
> 30$ my asssss.........
>
> please contact Zir0 for more information....
>
> adios motha fucker...

Well. That just makes me feel sooo good. Someone is providing warez versions
and has the gall enough to spite me. I can't help but ask myself, why the
hell did I even bother releasing Impulse Tracker? IT could have been a
PolyTracker (made famous by The Rew/Nostalgia and Vic/ACME) or an Imago
Orpheus (Just how many of you have heard of this FT2-featured tracker with a
ST3 interface?). But it wasn't. Well, why the hell DID I *release* IT?

IT was *created* because *I* track. Not because *YOU* track, not because
Necros wanted a ST3 interface with more advanced features, not because
the demoscene or musicscene wanted IT to be created, but because *I* track.
That I *released* it is something to do with pride.

When an artist paints something that they are proud of, they don't hide it
away! They go and show their work of art to as many people as they can.
Impulse Tracker is my work of art. I wanted it to be something that I could
share with everyone who would find joy in using it. And so Impulse Tracker
was released as a program that you could use freely, without any shareware
or crippleware restrictions so that the hours that I had spent chiselling
my sculpture could be seen in full, front and back, so that anyone could use
Impulse Tracker to it's maximum capabilities at any particular time.. And I
was(am) happy for people to use IT as a hobby. The problem comes when the
distinction between hobby and *job* becomes blurred. I don't care if you
spend 24 hours a day on IT. That you enjoy using my program so much to use
it day after day brings satisfaction to me, but what I am concerned about
is when someone gets *paid* for using IT.

Impulse Tracker wasn't a program that just 'appeared.' I slaved at it for
hundreds of hours.. easily over 1500 hours, probably closer to 2000. If
someone can spend 4 hours, or even 100 hours (for the sake of example) on
a song and get paid for it, then I feel that it's surely my right to see
some of their earnings.

How does ITWAV.DRV fit into this? Well, as far as I can see, there are only
a few reasons that anyone would want a stereo version of ITWAV.DRV.
ITWAV.DRV is used to make high-quality, noiseless WAV file recordings of
modules. This is especially suited for burning CD ROMs, since most CDR
software accepts audio data in the form of WAV files. This version of ITWAV
is not distributed in the general package, as it really does have
profit-situation implications. As for those people who do want to burn CDRs
of their own music, I figured that they would have spent a number of hours
using Impulse Tracker to create their songs and that asking for US$30 to
enable them to produce something really tangible (their own audio CD!)
wouldn't be asking too much. After all, they'd have to spent somewhere
around $10 to pay for a blank CD, let alone the CD-Recorder.

Obviously, there are many people who do not share my views. US$30 is just
too much. To quote some of the Velvet Studio's Help file:

         "...I get your point exactly:
          You want people like us to work our asses off without
          getting anything from it. Next time, try to convince
          a car salesman to give away a Ferrari for free..."

These are the words of another very pissed off coder who put a lot of time
and effort into creating a state-of-the-art piece of software and who never
received what he deserved.

To put it another way:
    "People want everything but are not willing to give anything."

Gladly, I know this is not true. There are a good number of people out there
who have a fair judgement. To those of you who have contributed, I thank
you. To all these and to the friends I have made, you will receive updates
as I make them.

To all the others, IT213 will be the very final public release that you'll
see from me. There will be bugfix releases and probably also new soundcard
drivers, but you won't see a single new feature in IT after that.

I used to envy how Psi so neatly avoided any sort of responsibility for ST3.
Now, I will be able to join him.

Jeffrey Lim
Pulse

PS. For those of you who have had EMS Stability problems with IT212, grab
the IT213 preview from http://www.citenet.net/noise/it