That sounds like SaaS specifically. In any case, I agree with you, it sucks that you don’t get to actually own a piece of software, even though I understand the benefit of a constant revenue stream for the developer so they can continue to push updates (and the second reason why they do it is probably preventing piracy, even though it’s still a bit hit or miss - with Adobe CC it’s still pretty easy, but Office now can’t be cracked IIRC).
I think the best middle ground would be to do what Sketch does with their Mac app or what Photoshop used to do, where you pay a flat fee for the app in its current version, get a few free updates on top and then after some time have to pay again to upgrade to a newer version.
That sounds like SaaS specifically. In any case, I agree with you, it sucks that you don’t get to actually own a piece of software, even though I understand the benefit of a constant revenue stream for the developer so they can continue to push updates (and the second reason why they do it is probably preventing piracy, even though it’s still a bit hit or miss - with Adobe CC it’s still pretty easy, but Office now can’t be cracked IIRC).
I think the best middle ground would be to do what Sketch does with their Mac app or what Photoshop used to do, where you pay a flat fee for the app in its current version, get a few free updates on top and then after some time have to pay again to upgrade to a newer version.
I am in favour of that. Shame that its becoming a more and more rare business model.