The fact that the OEMs would have to ship source if they used an open-source player is beside the point: the point is that we wouldn't get any recompense for our efforts (and hence would have no reason to continue developing the player).

Given the choice between an open source player and a closed source one, an OEM is likely to choose the closed source variant as it could give them an advantage over their competitors. Shipping an open source version would mean that they instantly lose any lead they have: open source levels the playing field to being a fight over hardware, and small companies don't (because they can't) fight over hardware. It works for linux because the hardware became commoditized a long time ago.

A small company making amps is not a good example: amps (as with a lot of high-end gear) are a matter of taste - in cambridge we're surrounded by esoteric hi-fi manufacturers like Arcam, Cambridge Audio, Tag-F1, etc. The reason why they're not cloned by large volume manufacturers is that the components they use are specially selected, probably hugely expensive, and so on: if their lead in the market was a no-cost software upgrade that could be applied by any volume competitor to their product and result in the same sound they *would* be dead. Why pay the money for a low-volume high-cost system when a mass-produced low-cost one gives exactly the same results (tonal quality, balance, soundstaging, whatever)?

Hugo