Wow. I lived through this transition and, although people make good points here, there is only one right answer: Piracy.
Adobe & other media creation software are a great example. Avid and Final Cut (previous industry standard video editing software) came with crazy levels of copy protection; physical dongles in fact. Adobe (might have been Final Cut, but I think it was Adobe) had the Creative Suite and it was the first to just have a standard license key…..and everyone pirated it. Now, with a subscription based service, you can share that info all you want, but you are limited to 2 active computers per license (standard license) so there is no benefit it sharing it with others.
This was the primary reason cited by all major software companies when the shift happened. It’s also fiscal, as they keep you paying a lot longer, but piracy was the catalyst.
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