"Completely shafted" seems a bit strong. There's no contract that says you have to keep updating an application forever, can never sell the company/app to anybo

"Completely shafted" seems a bit strong. There's no contract that says you have to keep updating an application forever, can never sell the company/app to anybody, or have to maintain all hardware implementations for eternity. If there were it would be much more expensive. They took an economic decision that made sense for their employees and shareholders - to do otherwise would be shafting them. You can still use what you had used for X years - it just won't be improved. If it had so many years of work then it's likely still useful. Compare that to hardware, which needs updating every couple years (like my screen, which died yesterday). The alternative is that Visicalc, or Deluxe Paint for Amiga continue to be updated forever. I wouldn't invest in that business, and I'd hate to be a developer there.