Hi Michael,
Snipped.

>From my standpoint it is unacceptable to simply sit back quietly and accept that maybe, but probably not, Microsoft will end this abuse in, say, 2004.

I don't think anyone should sit back quietly. That's the beauty of the marketplace. You and I count. It's a paradox. What one person does surely can't matter to a giant company like Microsoft, yet because we all count, it does,...somehow,... maybe. We influence the probability of the outcome. How?
When a new version comes out, I try to influence that upgrades are purchased. Our firm buys quite a few. When the user group meets, I try to attend. I try to attend conferences. Our firm buys a lot of UT memberships. I contribute the $25 to the Wiki.
You may do it differently with on-line work. But together it matters. Enough--I have no idea. That's the uncertainty of the world. If I knew how it would turn out, I would have bought more MS stock than I did years ago. And I wouldn't have sold some of it after it only quadrupled.