For people who purchased CC software when the lifetime upgrade policy was in effect, I believe it is reasonable for them to expect that part of what they were paying for was the upgrades based on the existing policy when they bought the software.

I do realize that you are in business to make money, and I believe that most people would find that concept reasonable.

I hope you realize that when you sell software with an existing support/upgrade policy, that the software is not the sole product you are selling, at least in most people's perception.

Many companies sell support and upgrades as a separate priced option at sale time, and this makes it clear that the price of those options are not included in the base software price.

You did have alternatives. You could have written what you are now calling a paid upgrade as part of an add on to be sold separately, and you would have avoided this whole situation.

No matter what the legal situation is concerning this, it is bad form from a business standpoint, and I would not be surprised to find that most people feel the same.

Thank you for sharing your opinion Kurt.

For years our customers have been telling us we are too generous on our free updates and that they would be willing to pay fees to make sure the program they love keeps getting plenty of attention. We held out for over 15 years though and finally decided after much discussion that it was just time to do so. Yes, it is a big change for some and we know not everyone will be happy with that, but we need to do what we think is the best for us and our customers. We still plan on having many, many free updates as we feel that is very important but once and a while there will need to be a small fee to help offset these costs.

Then too, Coffeecup could have simply closed the doors and said that's it! Okay, lifetime upgrades are over. Then just opened the door again and said 'Hey, we're the 'New Coffeecup' and this is our new policy.

Well, and this is just my humble opinion, I think the way they went about it was the best way to go. It's not like it was a giant surprise! They talked about it in newsletters and on this forum for quite a while before they actually charged anything. And frankly you have to admit, most of the programs we bought for the lifetime upgrade are really no longer in use. Some, not all. The new responsive programs, at least to me, look and work completely different. Much better I guess (once I figure them out). So I don't mind paying a reasonable fee. So far the 'upgrade' fees have been really reasonable! (woo-hoo!)

Just my 2 cents but I hope CoffeeCup stays in business as long as I do. Can't really say where I'd be without them. Not to mention all the cool folks I meet here in the forums. Keep the coffee flowing Coffeecup. I'll be here . . .

I don't have a problem with it. Were not being forced to upgrade and the older versions still function. Besides the policy statement said you could make changes at anytime. At least you told us what the plan was. Gotta respect that kind of service. Maybe provide free upgrades to apps but you get no access to the forum. I'm thinking paying for a few upgrades from time to time would never match some of the help we have received from this forum.
Keep up the great work Coffeecup!