[hoistbypetard]

Of course that's sustainable, if your license doesn't require me to run some online infrastructure in order for it to continue to be useful.

In the case of the software in question on this thread, the software is useless without the online service.

It's very hard to price a lifetime, one-time-fee license that requires ongoing expenses to provide an online service, in such a way that providing the service in perpetuity is sustainable.

And these people didn't.

[cardiffspaceman]

There is a situation I read about but can't properly search for some reason. An English monarch traveling through some town, centuries ago, was sufficiently impressed by something that happened in the town that he left behind an endowment to supply an altar with candles forever.

[rovr138]

It’s doable. It’s just you need to know how to make it work. Also keep improving so afterwards people not on those licenses keep buying and paying for it.

Re lifetime licenses, if you offer it for a certain amount of time or until you reach a goal. it can work. At that point, hey! You have funding and you bootstrapped your product/company.

Then you switch to whatever licensing scheme you want.

[hoistbypetard]

I agree that it's doable, but "just ... know how to make it work" might be a higher bar than it sounds like.

It would certainly appear these guys did not know how.