Shane, ask yourself what it would be like if all of a sudden, cars, houses, your computer, the shower on your wall, the bicycle in your garage, the washing machine, everything was rented with no option to buy it outright?

Thing is, you have the freedom to choose what you do and do not see as a being viable for rental. But what happens when you take that choice away? You have perpetual slavery, because it would not matter how long you work, how hard you work, you can do so your entire life and you would still be left with nothing, nothing whatsoever!

That is the problem, they have removed the choice, and are therefore forcing the customer into perpetual slavery if they wish to continue getting updates for the perpetual product they originally invested time and money in learning.

It is no different than someone visiting your house and saying, right Shane, that truck of yours, you might have paid for it, but we've decided to make you rent it from us if you plan to be able to keep it running. Oh, and by the way, if you're not happy with what we just offered, go ahead and rent a new truck instead, only that's all you will ever be able to do, rent it, we don't care how hard you work, we're NOT giving you the option to pay us money so that you can ever own it, NEVER. We trust you're ok with our new arrangement, Shane, so if you'd be so kind, please sign the licensing agreement right there on the dotted line, and I'll allow you to start renting the truck that you already paid for.

Far-fetched as it sounds, it is no different to software rental, because in effect you are condoning the removal of choice, and forced perpetual enslavement through software rental. In a court, neither Adobe or Autodesk would have a valid argument for why, after covering the cost of a perpetual licence, a subscriber should not be granted that perpetual licence. The reason they would not have a valid argument, is simply because ... there isn't one.

Anyway, these debates can go on and on, so I'm dropping discussion of it, but I really do wish you would see that the problem is the complete removal of choice, with the ONLY choice left being unethical, perpetual slavery. It is the perfect dream-society those corporate snakes would have the entire world living under if they have their way.

The system is pure cancer, and like all cancers, needs to be stamped out of existence permanently.