If you've been using mIRC with a lifetime license since 1995 you've paid roughly $.74 a year for the privilege. I'm sympathetic to the developer here.
I'm not. You don't get to unilaterally revoke a contract just because it turned out to be unprofitable or unfavorable to you.
But regardless of that, discovering legal trickery to weasel out of a deal is morally bankrupt.
(EG, most licenses lay out... "v1.x updates only")
I have not seen companies saying "Lifetime updates to Bord, forever!"... then calling a same product "Zdft" to get out of updates.
I do wonder though how sympathetic a court would be to the plantiff if mIRC was brought to court? How enforceable is a lifetime contract? No answer needed just my own curiosity.
In 1906, the Canadian National Railway Company signed a contract for upkeep of a bridge, in perpetuity(forever):
https://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2018/2018ONCA0517.pdf
When CN refused to reopen the Bridge for vehicles, Thunder Bay brought an application for a determination of its contractual rights under the 1906 Agreement. Two provisions of this Agreement are central to this appeal: s. 3, in which Grand Trunk Pacific agreed to give Fort William “the perpetual right to cross the said bridge for street railway, vehicle and foot traffic”; and s. 5, in which CN agreed to “maintain the bridge in perpetuity”.
If a mega-corp can't weasel out of a deal to maintain a bridge forever, I don't see how a software company can weasel out either.
CN tried all sorts of arguments, too, which essentially boiled down to "things are different now!", and "how could we have known!", which of course are meaningless arguments.
Especially if they hand out promises that last 80 years and more.
Really? Given that the product has died when the warranty is called in, that suggests that any such warranty is worthless. "This gadget is guaranteed to keep working until it stops working."
There's also no marginal cost in allowing lifetime licensees to download updates.
What if he puts a bunch of printed license keys on the top of a mountain, only to be granted after you answer his riddles three? It's still technically available, but not really.
But seriously, just pay the man.
What do you suggest, or are you even suggesting anything?
Why is HN always so damn against developers facing their hubris, or mistakes, or consequences for their actions?
Now, the consequences here could be as simple as stop supporting things after ten years instead of infinite. This could directly open them up to legal challenges but who is going to take you to court for a few tens of dollars after ten years, for IRC.
None of that makes the developer someone we should root for. They sold an impossible deal, probably out of naivety, but that's how life goes sometimes.
Because it's clear what will happen. Software he supports will die off. And because we can empathize.
Empathy is lost on internet, hidden behind entitlement.
If they were asking nicely, I assume there would be no pitchforks. Instead they reverted the license, and you can find a FAQ on their website that tells you that you can email them, and eventually they’ll un-revert the license.
This is not about dollars, it is about ethics.
Nobody wants to be your customer with the expectation that they are cheated out of value. However, who has been cheated out of value in this case? Noone. The app provided more than $1/year of value for its users. Whoever paid for mirc got their money's worth and more.
I'd love to see a poll about what percentage of people complaining about ethics have ever run a small business. I stopped developing iOS apps, because it's not possible to write the software once and charge once. You have to grind through bullshit API changes every year, and users want something for nothing.
Good. You did the honorable and ethical thing.
Or, you could have changed to a paid support model for new customers only.
But you're arguing for a very different approach --- changing the license after lifetime support was sold. This is not good --- or ethical.
It doesn't even make sense from a business perspective. How many people will pay again after they were lied to? They have no reason to believe the new license will be honored any better than the old one. Credibility has been lost.