EULAs
Ok, this is a bit of a semi-complaint, but it's something that needs to be said.
I have no problem buying shareware products. In fact, I would rather buy a shareware product instead of a commercial one because it allows me to test-drive the product without violating the license agreements or upsetting the piracy police. In other words, I can check out the product and decide on it before I lay my money down. Also, shareware products tend to be less expensive than their commercial counterparts, although there are notable exceptions.
One product I purchased a while back offered up "lifetime upgrades" which seems to be the norm for the type of application I purchased. It was only $25 when I bought it, the price going up to $29.95 shortly after I made my purchase so I considered myself very fortunate. Anyway, for over a year I enjoyed my free updates, which were not frequent but were often enough to bring appreciated changes to the table.
One afternoon I got an email from the company that sold the product to me. They had decided to change their upgrade policy and subsequently their EULA. Now, that product comes with one year of free upgrades instead of lifetime, and after that I will have to purchase a license renewal if I want to get more upgrades beyond the one year mark.
I thought long and hard about this. I could create a ruckus for the company and demand that they grandfather their customers prior to the policy change, but I realized that two things would likely happen: I would spend a lot more on legal fees than the application cost me (c'mon, it was only $25), and the company could very easily discontinue the application and create a brand new one in a very short period of time, under a new name, that would be sufficiently different to say that it's not the same application. In short, they shafted their customers on this one.
The end result is that I will never purchase from them again, and I will replace their application with something else that has a better upgrade policy (free lifetime upgrades). It is too bad, as they have some other products that I seriously considered plunking money down to purchase a license - that will not happen now.
I am guessing that this will end up killing them. I sincerely hope so.
I have no problem buying shareware products. In fact, I would rather buy a shareware product instead of a commercial one because it allows me to test-drive the product without violating the license agreements or upsetting the piracy police. In other words, I can check out the product and decide on it before I lay my money down. Also, shareware products tend to be less expensive than their commercial counterparts, although there are notable exceptions.
One product I purchased a while back offered up "lifetime upgrades" which seems to be the norm for the type of application I purchased. It was only $25 when I bought it, the price going up to $29.95 shortly after I made my purchase so I considered myself very fortunate. Anyway, for over a year I enjoyed my free updates, which were not frequent but were often enough to bring appreciated changes to the table.
One afternoon I got an email from the company that sold the product to me. They had decided to change their upgrade policy and subsequently their EULA. Now, that product comes with one year of free upgrades instead of lifetime, and after that I will have to purchase a license renewal if I want to get more upgrades beyond the one year mark.
I thought long and hard about this. I could create a ruckus for the company and demand that they grandfather their customers prior to the policy change, but I realized that two things would likely happen: I would spend a lot more on legal fees than the application cost me (c'mon, it was only $25), and the company could very easily discontinue the application and create a brand new one in a very short period of time, under a new name, that would be sufficiently different to say that it's not the same application. In short, they shafted their customers on this one.
The end result is that I will never purchase from them again, and I will replace their application with something else that has a better upgrade policy (free lifetime upgrades). It is too bad, as they have some other products that I seriously considered plunking money down to purchase a license - that will not happen now.
I am guessing that this will end up killing them. I sincerely hope so.
