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AT&T sues Broadcom for refusing to renew perpetual license support
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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I mean fuck AT&T, but fuck needless consolidation, pointless service bundling, and revocation of perpetual licences even more.
Also just fuck Broadcom in general for all the other dumb shit they do.
This isn't a revocation of a perpetual license. This is about broadcom not offering their support services any more. ATT still has the perpetual license to use the software they bought
The wise thing is to not offer perpetual licenses in the first place. You can't predict the state of your business in 10 years let alone beyond that. Why make commitments that? Marketing of course. So if they're going to raise capital that way (by one-time revenue from sales of perpetual licenses) then they can't just decide that perpetual doesn't mean perpetual anymore. All in all this will come down to a legal duel between expensive legal teams.
Perpetual licences have their place, like I'm reasonably confident under the hood you have a perpetual licences for the OS your phone runs on. The point isn't to get a piece of software that will be updated and supported forever, it's to get something that works, fits your needs, and that you know can't just be revoked at the whim of another. Problem is that last one is becoming increasingly untrue.