>Hi,
>
>Is there a term for an application purchased/sold on the basis that the customer must pay every year. If the customer does not pay the application stops working. I am trying to find a term or words that describe this type of approach.

I'd call it "unusual" < g > I don't recall running into any production software that works that way.

Enterprise software such as ERP calls it "maintenance" - you pay $XXXXXX up front for licensing (which includes 1st year maintenance), then typically 15 - 25% of $XXXXXX per year for ongoing maintenance. If you wish, you can choose to stop paying maintenance during any renewal period, but if you do that

- you don't get any more bug fixes
- you don't get any enhancements or upgrades
- if you need pay-as-you-go support from the vendor, that may cost 3x or more what it would if you had an active maintenance agreement

However, your app keeps running - it's just "frozen in time".

Low-end accounting software works this way too - they "encourage" you to maintain a contract by not supplying payroll updates unless you do.

Even antivirus will keep working if a subscription runs out - just no more definition updates.

So, IME software that stops working completely is fairly draconian.

Maybe you are concerned that the purchaser won't pay for the software, and you want to retain some sort of enforcement method? Well, the way it was explained to me long ago is something like this:

- You enter into a contract with the purchaser: you agree to supply working software, and they agree to pay you for that

- If they fail to pay, but your software continues to work, that is a clear breach of contract by the purchaser

- However, if your software stops working, you have both breached the contract, which makes it a legal mess

You would also need to be extremely careful that whatever enforcement mechanism you used did not fire falsely. Suppose the purchaser inadvertently set the date on their time server a year in advance, and that caused your software to lock up, even though they were up-to-date with payments? They might even do that on purpose in order to record a breach of contract by you.