I thought he was referring to the time before empeg was even started.

Yeah that is clear, but I will second Rob's notion that nobody on the Empeg team ever even hinted that the Empeg's player software source code would be available to the general public. I've been on this BBS since mid-1999 and in the pre-Empeg days, I followed Hugo's mp3mobile page rather closely. Throughout this time, there has been no indication or even hint that the player software would be open sourced... So I think the aforementioned notion that somehow the original "spirt" of the Empeg was to have completely open-sourced development is revisionist history. On the other hand, kernel mods, hardware projects, etc. were all encouraged and unofficially supported right here. But releasing the player source was never a part of their strategy. If someone finds evidence to the contrary I'd love to see it, though.

-Tony
MkII #554