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Comment by _zzaw | Hacker News Reader

This looks really good. I was a major fan of Coda, but I’ve been disappointed with Nova, so I’m looking for something else.

The fact that this isn’t saddled with subscription pricing is a huge plus. I don’t even consider software I can’t own; $24.99 as a one-time payment with a year of updates is more than fair.

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This is one of the reasons I like JetBrains subscription service. Even if you stop paying, you get a fallback license that updates every year (I believe); so you have perpetual access to their product, even if slightly out of date.

What if JetBrains goes out of business?

Best case scenario, all users get a license to the current version. Worst case scenario, they get a license to whatever version was released a year prior.

For any software that has anything resembling DRM, which is a vast majority of software, once the company goes out of business, there’s no way to activate it. (Unless they address the conundrum before taking down the activation servers, of course.)

This isn’t really a downside of the licensing scheme itself, though. If it was DRM free and on the honor system, it would not have this drawback.

Of course, it’s currently unclear if a software development tool can remain relevant for many years after it is effectively unmaintained, so maybe this isn’t that interesting of a question.

Jetbrains support offline activation, using a key. I don't know if it has an expiration date, but it could be a solution.

On the other hand, no DRM is immune to being cracked.

> Of course, it’s currently unclear if a software development tool can remain relevant for many years after it is effectively unmaintained, so maybe this isn’t that interesting of a question.

I wonder if there has ever been a company that pledged to release the source code of their software in the case of bankruptcy, e.g. as part of the purchase/license agreement so that if the company is bought in a bankruptcy auction, the new owners can't change their minds.

Although I guess in that case, the incentive to pirate the software goes up lol

I recommend companies add a clause to their licenses that if they go out of business or get acquired with the consequence that the product line gets discontinued, the product becomes open source automatically.

That also takes out a lot of risk for bigger companies doing business with startups.

The end user doesn't have the copyright to the source therefore they are unable to relicense it. The only person that can make it open source is the acquiring company. The acquiring company might not have signed the EULA, or they could just negotiate an amendment with their new acquiree that removes the clause.

I’m not sure a company can be liable about something written in a licence if they go out of business. At least it could be seen as a sign of goodwill.

It only happened after the pitchforks and torches were brought out, and they caved in to offer an alternative to the original subscription plans.

There is plenty of companies that don’t listen at all, and double down on their stupidity.

If it's a good product, I'm happy spending a lot more than $25 a year.

Why disappointed in Nova [maybe vs Coda]? I didn’t use Nova much myself so didn’t get to see enough of its issues

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