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Software, limited life time?

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by jim_maclachlan

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Back in 1999, I purchased a program called diskSpace Explorer from East Technologies (east-tec.com) At the time, it was one of the few programs that did what I wanted & was just $25 or so. I use the program about twice a year & left it on my old utility PC.

A year or two ago, I started getting warnings that diskSpace Explorer was old & I should upgrade. I ignored it. Now the program will not run at all. I wrote to East-Tec about it & they didn't deny it - they put code in there so the program expired. It will not run - not because the OS is beyond it or anything, but because it has a limited lifetime, something not mentioned when I purchased the program.

As cheap as it is, I would buy a new copy except that I really object to this type of business practice. I won't buy anything else from them again either.

Jim

4 replies

by stress junkie

Putting a limited lifetime into the software (license) seems like a strategy used by scum. If the limited life isn't mentioned on the packaging and it isn't mentioned in the license then you might consider filing a complaint with various consumer protection organizations. A few that I can think of off hand would be the U.S. Government's Federal Trade Commision (FTC), your state's consumer protection agency, and the Better Business Bureau. Local television news stations in my area have some consumer advocacy features if they feel that your story makes for good television. Maybe your local television stations have something similar. Basically you could give them more than $25 worth of headaches and bad publicity with little effort on your part.

by dr dij

the microsoft planned obsolescence virus.
I've got older versions of ftp, office, OS, photoshop, etc. and they work fine.

pretty horrid of them.
especially if they didn't disclose it in the EULA.
Wasn't there a law against disabling software remotely, or maybe I was thinking of the law that enabled it?

by jim_maclachlan

I'm wrong. Apparently they meant for me to download the evaluation version & they will give me a new serial number. Miscommunication coupled with a time lag? I hope so. I haven't seen the serial number yet. I still don't like that the program expired.

by dr dij

If they weren't available to give you a new vsn you'd be stuck. That's why for large sw purchases, they put source code in escrow sometimes.

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