"In effect, they've violated the license agreement by removing any chance of complying." Legally this is simply untrue for the types of readme files normally given. If it says "no commercial use unless you get my permission" then you cannot use it without permission, even if they dissapear. That's the end of that. That's one fo the reasons I don't bother installing things I can use commercially - there is simply no reason to get used to using somethign that can be taken away from me :)