You are completely right - software should be transferable from one machine to another (and usually is). It pretty much only works though if you assume your cu

You are completely right - software should be transferable from one machine to another (and usually is). It pretty much only works though if you assume your customer is honest, and don't spend too much time fighting it. Which means yes, some dishonest customers will buy once and use on multiple machines. If you go the other way - assume the customer is dishonest - then you need "transfer checking" which in turn means external servers (at best) or staff (at worst). But a model where you get one-time revenue, but monthly-reoccurring cost (for life no less) is not sustainable. Reoccurring revenue to match reoccurring cost is sustainable - hence subscriptions are popular with products that have reoccurring cost (development, support etc.) Version upgrades were popular, but that is an "optional subscription" which works only as long as you keep adding things existing customers actually want. This was masked behind new sales, but once there's some market saturation this becomes a bigger problem. Lifetime licenses should only apply to software that will be completely abandoned when sales dry up. Which means no online infrastructure etc. I've seen other "lifetime" products "change name" to side-step the lifetime free upgrades license, and it leaves a very sour taste with customers.