MegaSquirt has offered a high level of openess for people from the community to get involved and sometimes contribute back improving the EFI experience for all MegaSquirt users. This model has brought forward several key contributors that have become critical to the ongoing development and support of MegaSquirt products.
However it should always be understood that the licensing of all MegaSquirt Firmwares requires that firmware to be run on B&G manufactured or licensed MegaSquirt boards. This licensing cost is what supports the infrastructure of the MegaSquirt community such as forums and servers, but even more so, the key contributors such as developers and documentors. B&G Licensing is quite modest in cost as is the amount that makes it back to the key contributors, but these people are critical to supporting the community in an ongoing fashion and the development of new features and products.
Unfortunately there are always opportunist without regard for legalities or support for the community and will produce MegaSquirt clones without licensing in order to steal the development done by the MegaSquirt firmware developers, and expect to leverage the support channels provided by MegaSquirt at MegaSquirt's expense. This is sometimes to simply redirect a few dollars into their own pocket and sometimes because their product is of such low quality that MegaSquirt does not wish to associate their branding with the product.
So make sure you know who you are buying your MegaSquirt from. Some of the greatest offenders of MegaSquirt licencing have been:
KDFI - these are unlicensed MegaSquirt 2 knock offs that run on typically a very dated and stolen version of MS2 Extra firmware.
Beware of these units, you will likely find yourself without proper support when you need it. Please seek a reputable MegaSquirt dealer for your own protection and to benefit from the highly regarded MegaSquirt support network.
