You can be sued at any time, by anyone, for any reason, no matter how stupid.
Further, you must defend yourself in court, or you will automatically lose.
It's expensive for the person suing you so it's not generally done unless they're really angry or really rich.
Does any of that description fit any person or corporation in the story you posted?

The suit will be thrown out but Microsoft hopes by the use of fear to control you without actually having to pay lawyers.
They have lawyers on staff who get paid anyway so there's no down side to this unless you call their bluff or stop buying their stuff because of their practices.
Up to you man.

> Apple simply do not exist...they certainly did not invent the desktop analogy

but they did use the bible from the guys that did invent it.

>they have been fantastic.

They've done an above average job, but I wouldn't consider it up to professional standards.
The poor quality of the Gnome file manager is a perfect example.

They're also increasingly getting away from the what the average user wants to do with a PC.

Cloud computing? There are stories everywhere about companies being hacked and data stolen,
Internet root DNS servers being down for 18 hours, etc.
I don't want someone who doesn't care about my business or my data being responsible for it.
It's a niche market and they should be focusing on nailing down basic functionality still.
They wouldn't even have to write it themselves. A bounty would probably work just fine.

Man, I gotta get into the titanium dioxide production business if bioluminescent jelly fish are going to be cheaper.
There's gotta be a heck of a profit in there.

We could just extend this concept and allow people to buy their way out of all crimes!
Everybody knows funding government is more important that protecting the public!
Then we can cut out the church and start selling dispensations for sins too!

Good idea!

Nope, never worked for or owned a game company.

So in summary:
If you don't get what you want it's "abuse".
You don't care about anyone but yourself.

Thanks! I've been thinking about creating a game. You've been very educational.
Now I see what I can expect in the customer support if I start a game company.

You've obviously given this no thought from any viewpoint except your own. If a game published no new content, or no content that was any better or different than what was currently available, then people would rapidly become bored and quit. The business owners have to earn money from the
game or they would just get jobs somewhere else. Of course there's going to be new and better content. Further, their model works, as evidenced
by the fact you bought one of their games even after they "cheated" you of your expected reward. Look up "Rationalization" and "Sour Grapes" and see
if they apply to anyone you know.