I don't really blame EAA for Dassault's actions. I suspect there was an expectation on their part that offering the deal to EAA members would increase sales of the full priced version of their software, which probably didn't happen. Used to be you bought software, or more accurately a permanent license to use it; now pretty much everything is moving to an annual or even monthly subscription as companies explore how to extract the maximum amount of cash from their customers. This is all based on the fact that there's an expectation that all of our devices are always connected to the Internet, so they can control licensing and usage in real time. This is only going to get worse.


So like I said, I don't really blame EAA here -- but by now we should have learned that if the software company can pull a Lucy and yank that football away, they most likely will. Unlike Charlie Brown, I won't fall for it again.