&gt; Why would it work another way?<p>Because I shouldn&#x27;t have to retroactively pay for a period I didn&#x27;t use a product and the natural thing for me to assume was my status as a previous customer&#x2F;license holder was what enabled me to an upgrade with the advertised &quot;year&#x27;s&quot; worth of upgrades? Because that&#x27;s how upgrade licenses work for other software products? (Windows&#x2F;Office, other stuff I&#x27;ve used.)<p>They can define a license however they want, it&#x27;s just up to me whether I find it worthwhile, and I didn&#x27;t.<p>But at least in those days I had the option of continuing to use the older version after it expired.