[hdjjhhvvhga]

No, I don't think so. If the seller actually incurs monthly costs like hosting, this is absolutely fair. What I would call a dark pattern is when you buy an app, a piece of software that executes code on your device, and are forced to pay monthly fees. This gets more and more common. I understand the reasons, but I personally prefer one-off payments and buy software in this way. If it's good, I will pay for upgrades anyway.

Another dark pattern is switching off your customer's apps remotely as Adobe did to their customers in Venezuela two years ago.

[teddyh]

Why does hosting need to be bundled with software upgrade and support? Hint: It doesn’t.

[alexwebb2]

Because otherwise you’re on the hook to support N versions of the software instead of just one.

It’s vastly easier, simpler and cheaper to support hosted software.

[teddyh]

That’s simply not true. There is no reason why you couldn’t simply drop support for even very recent versions. Google and Apple do this today.