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Microsoft Moves To Patent Time-Based Software Licensing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-can-we-squeeze-the-customer-more dept.

theodp writes "Microsoft's Open Value Subscription offering didn't get the warmest reception. Nor did the follow-up announcement of Albany, a planned MS-Office Subscription Service. Now comes word from the USPTO that Microsoft feels it deserves a patent for the 'invention' of 'Time-Based Licensing,' which aims to make the traditional pay-once perpetual license model a thing of the past. Hey, if your customers were waiting nine years between OS upgrades, you'd try touting a three-year lease with a balloon buy-out payment, too!"

5 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Traditional model a thing of the past? Really? by camperslo · · Score: 4, Funny

    NASA please test!

    It's believed there may be water in the soil in Redmond

  2. Re:Matlab by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Invention? What the heck are they talking about? My Matlab license has been time-based for years. I remember one day Matlab stopped working for me because I never got around to entering the new license number that our IT folks emailled me a few weeks earlier.

    I find htat venders uzwolly forgit to tern off feeturs. Four exampul, my spail chekker lisense ran out, butt it steal fixes all my werds just fyne, flaging and perviding opshuns az uzwoll. Woodent that bee funnie iff it listed rong werds aftur? Ha, I probly woodent notiss teh differns anyhowl.
           

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    Table-ized A.I.
  3. Re:Matlab by networkBoy · · Score: 3, Funny

    prior to expiring you should have used Matlab to brute force the algorithm for generating keys...
    But you forgot to do that, so you had to go and retrieve that e-mail. How silly.

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    whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  4. Whoa. by Kingrames · · Score: 2, Funny

    STAND BACK!

    I'm going to attempt time travel.

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    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  5. Re:Traditional model a thing of the past? Really? by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    NASA please test! It's believed there may be water in the soil in Redmond

    That's not water, it just looks like water from afar. It's a blue screen with little white letters.
             

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    Table-ized A.I.