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It all depends on the corporate policy I guess. Some companies are trying the open source model and earning money by selling a complete package or support.
Corporate, once convinced of the merits of strategic open source, tends to follow the advice of the product development team when considering what and when to open source bits of their software, in my experience. Rob has already indicated that he believes the player gives Rio a strategic advantage. Clearly, Ogg and Flac and good ID tag support are currently useful differentiators right now (but these alone aren't the reason that the player is important IP).
Permitting the guys in blue to spend more time on Empeg would hurt Rio. Open Sourcing the code would hurt Rio. Open Sourcing some other minor bits and pieces wouldn't help get 3.00 final. Providing a couple of trusted individuals with access to internal code and tools might be viable. What other options are there?
Well, one option might be to form an Empeg Foundation Ltd and seek a source-code license (for the player software including Receiver Edition branch, and Emplode) and trademark use rights from DNNA. Those that remember Acorn will recall that this is effectively what RiscOS Ltd agreed with Pace Micro. The real question is whether the community is willing to pay $50 per year for updated software, a magazine, T-shirt and regular meet-events.
There are probably other options of which I haven't thought.
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