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How Many Times Should We Pay For Our Software?

Posted by Zonk on from the as-many-times-as-it-takes dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An editorial at ZDNet talks about the concept of subscription licensing for software." From the article: "But the software industry is greedy enough to want to go even further. Ignoring the subtleties of DRM -- which snares users by glossing over the unseen ties between content and format -- vendors from BEA to Microsoft are eager to take up the blunt cudgel of subscription licensing, which merely asserts that, if you don't pay up again at the end of the year, your software stops working. The best way to deploy the mechanism of subscription licensing, of course, is as a hosted service, because it gives the software vendor the ability to instantly turn off the software-on-tap if the renewal is not forthcoming. Perhaps this explains Microsoft's new-found attraction to 'hosted everything' (whether or not it can work)."

2 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Not opposed . . . by Seumas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not deeply opposed to the concept of subscriptions. Disregarding operating systems for a second (I'm an OSX, Linux, Solaris guy), I think that people will have to wrap their mind around the new concept. We are used to paying for an item and owning it rather than paying for the function and service performed. If the price is reasonable . . . why the hell not?

    Forgetting that OpenOffice is free, let's say you had the option of paying $350 for each copy of each release of your office software (word processor and spreadsheet program) every couple of years or so. Why not pay $5/mo for the same functionality and never have to worry about upgrades or new releases? Same with games and everything else. Why should software be so different than any other delivered service?

    My main concerns would be:

    + What if the service stops being offered or the company goes out of business?

    + What are the security and privacy ramifications?

    + What are my options if I don't want to use a net connection?

    + What will happen to my documents/material when I stop subscribing to the software?

    + Will others have to subscribe to the software service to make use of the content/items I made?

    + Will I be forced into using an "application server" style arrangement or will I still be able to download and install the fully functional software on my actual computer? I don't want to be tethered to the internet for all functionality.

    + Will you charge me per-seat/user even in a household? Or can I still just have one subscription and let everyone who comes to my house or lives with me use my software as if it were not a subscription? I don't want to have to pay $20/mo for four people in my home to access something when I could just buy the software and they could use it for "free" without additional costs.

    + Am I going to have to allow a credit check and offer up my credit card number, social security number, home address, full name and other private data to secure an account with the software subscription service? Won't this make me easy to track in relation to anything I ever read, access, view or create/author? Do I really want this?

  2. on the bright side, by Khashishi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Subscription based licensing will encourage the release of products that don't suck.

    Because if the product sucks, nobody will renew the subscription.

    In the gaming realm, companies will be encouraged to continually add new content and improve things to keep the game from falling out of favor.