>Yep. However, I am willing to take my chances of those consequences versus those of a non-paying customer in violation of a contract.

With this I have no argument; as I said, I've done it myself. I just want to make sure that folks are aware that they may be on the losing side of a court argument. I had a client that, via a convoluted story, didn't write the check when promised. It was the first bit of work we had done for this client, and they were certainly getting off on the wrong foot. So, I put the time bomb in and made them aware of it. The owner got back from wherever he had been and was furious.

"I talked to my brother who is a programmer, and he said it's wrong and unethical, blah, blah, blah."

"Umm, however 'unethical' it may be, keep in mind that your company has been using a software product for over a month, a product for which you have paid nothing. It would be difficult to argue that you're taking the high road here."

I got my check the same day. After that, I switched to using retainers with new clients whenever I could get away with it.