Only the companies, organizations and products that fail to earn can be morally good.
Interestingly, it is also the case that the failures are usually caused, not by any fault of the failure itself but rather by the antagonistic, evil behavior of the successes.
(yes yes its not necessarily the same people.
But often enough it is! :)
Nobody has a problem with companies that make money by offering a solid product that people buy. The anger comes from companies gaining money by other means. Any of these might qualify:
- Selling my data.
- Buying out the competition and letting the products die.
- employing manipulative tricks to get extra money from people (especially children).
Autodesk: "Oh no no no, you didn't BUY this software CD in a shrink-wrapped box. You just rented a 'perpetual license' and how dare you attempt to recoup that if you end up not using it."
And Autodesk managed to finagle a ruling that utterly tramples a consumer's right under the Doctrine of First Sale:
"The first sale doctrine, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 109, provides that an individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner."
But somehow Autodesk is exempt from this. WTF.
I know because they pulled this shit on me when I put an unopened copy of Inventor or 3DS Max on eBay. Their lawyers contacted eBay and threatened them, so of course eBay instantly folded and took down the listing. This violated my rights under the Doctrine of First Sale:
"The first sale doctrine, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 109, provides that an individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner."
I had the last laugh, however.
Meanwhile, Autodesk also attacked a kid who had put up a 3DS Max fan site, offering tutorials and tips. They seized his domain.
Autodesk was the vanguard of anti-consumer, trash software and media companies that have continued to take advantage of hopelessly ignorant judges and legislators to rip people off.
- former Autodesk employee
I have a decent computer with plenty of hardware for simulation as long as I'm willing to wait for the results... like a half hour or more in even simple cases. But because Autodesk wants lots and lots of money, they removed the ability to do that from the software. Fusion360 could already do it, but not any more.
Interestingly, in the time frame between when Fusion360 went pay to play for more than very basic features and now, Autodesk (ADSK) lost almost 40% of their corporate value.