No way for a Ham Radio vendor to behave
I have been a ham 41 years, and a software developer for 30+.
In today's world, it is insane for anyone to remotely disable software. It's insane to have physical dongles to enable software.
I've worked (and do work) in industries where software is used 24/7/365, and costs 100s of thousands of dollars. In those markets today, there are no "protection methods" for much of the software, other than license agreements. There is a new law against retaliating against reviews.
The excuses don't work. The owners thought they have something very valuable. They are wrong.
It ham radio software was sold at a price that represented the market size, if would be prohibitively expensive for the majority of users. So, ham radio software has to be a labor of love, or, a lifestyle business. If someone is relying on it for primary income, they are or will be in trouble. Some of the most successful and supported ham radio software in history is either freeware, low-cost, and certainly community supported... Like DX Lab, N1MM+ Logger, or TRX-Manager.
I, for one, hope that HRD survives... But the team certainly could use a mindset change.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
