How many suicidal cows do you know... No, don't answer that...
On topic:
As a relative newbie to emulation - mainly due to this -> gp32_console , I'd like to say that regardless of the morality of Emulation a developer should be able to charge for their work.
I've done a very little bit of original coding in my time - a (crap) battleships game for BBC, and a "noddy" (a computer language not a character) roll playing game for the Memotech MTX512, as well as some Macro programming, and a little bit of "de-compiling" to work out how things work. Now programming is (or seems to me) to be an incredibly frustrating thing to do - but, in the end, incredibly satisfying (even if no-one else ever even sees the end result).
So there is some argument to say that development is its own reward....
However, that said it does cost to distribute applications - if only in bandwidth, and this is where payment should come in - its how Public Domain "warehouses" originally made their money (those that did) by collecting PD (and shareware)software together onto floppies and (later on) CDs - and sending the results out in the post (I'm talking 12-15 years ago now) - the theory always was that any shareware products that were used you paid the author for - I got some brilliant apps that way - PCType, PCCalc, and Doom to name but three.
Now I know that some people on the GP32 scene have tried the "shareware" approach by releasing demos of applications and then nobody buys the final product - imho that can only reflect the quality of the product - I'm pretty sure that Gloop DX has worked out for combustion...
Now, if an emu could work in the same way (i.e. offer some functionality but not all: maybe exclude save states, gamma correction, something like that) then it would be possible to sell it. BUT gp32_console has kind of grown up with a tradition of free emulators - whereas the Zodiac hasn't. So offering a new emulator in a shareware stylee better offer something that no other emu has done yet, if people are going to pay for it...
If Emu writers want to make money out of their programming maybe they should write something original rather than an emu (not that emu's can't be original - look at the work enf65 is doing on gba...)...
Going back to an earlier point - if people need somewhere to host their project why not consider making your project open-source and hosting it on SourceForge, AFAIK that is free (at least for open source)...
Gor blimey look at me rambling on - that's gotta be my biggest post (or load of old drivel yet!

)...
Argon0
(not a n00by, but not exactly an oldbee either)