License euthanasia

Revision as of 08:40, 11 October 2025 by Drakeula (talk | contribs) (Suggest merge into Retroactively amended purchase)

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🔄 A merge request has been made for this article

There has been a merge request for this page for the following reason:

Seems to be a special case of modifying license terms after purchase. Could be covered as a subsection of more general article.

Merge with: Retroactively amended purchase


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“License euthanasia” is the practice of revoking perpetual licenses under the pretext that the company is looking out for the user’s best interest by forcing them to update to a later version. This term was coined by consumer-rights advocate Louis Rossmann, who observed that Final Draft’s description of an older version of its software as being “of advanced age” “made it sound like they’re doing the kind thing” by putting old software out of its misery.[1]