> 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.
I'm not. You don't get to unilaterally revoke a contract just because it turned out to be unprofitable or unfavorable to you.
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.
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.