[droithomme]

A lot of good software works just like this regarding the free trial. The program works for 30 days or 10 uses or such and then disables saving until you buy it. If the software is terrible you simply stop using it. If you found it useful and want to keep editing whatever files you made with it, then you buy it. They don't tell you it is free for 30 days and then charge you at the end of the 30 days unless you figure out how to cancel it. (Often made to be a very difficult task.)

Many newspaper web sites now seem to operate under this model as well, so many free articles per month as a free trial, then a paywall. Sometimes the paywall offers a second tier of free trial, like unlimited articles for a month, and then they start charging. One would argue that the second tier has to start charging automatically otherwise people could simply get a free trial each month. Not so, the free trial is tied to a credit card number and name so the person can't simply keep renewing trials forever. The card policy on trials in this case should still be to get consent before starting the subscription and charging. Many people avoid these sorts of free trials after finding out that cancelling the paid subscription is nearly impossible, sometimes requiring sending through the post a letter in a certain format to an unpublicized address. Having the policy be that consent is required would likely increase the number of people being willing to accept free trials, and the number who subsequently subscribe because they actually like the content or product and not because they got tricked by dark patterns. Many dark pattern operating content providers might have to increase their quality though to retain customers.

It's not enough to have credit card policies on these things, subscriptions are so often abusive that legal reform is needed. In addition to requiring consent after the trial, auto-renewing subscriptions should never be allowed to be the only or default choice. Auto-renew should be something you have to opt in to and we need legal reform to require that disabling auto-renew must be simple, straightforward, and available.