See my blog post about this: http://www.pronetworks.org/blog/index.php/general/21

Do we really want it? Does the "pay for use" software business model appeal to you?

It doesn't appeal to me, I like to pay once and thats it.

Its a truly a scary thing.. the future of software. But look at games, they have in essence, already done this and they are charging for the software... also. The MMO market is already getting 15$ a month from from its customers... (I am not a fan of it), if it were not for the fact that some of the best games are already 'subscription' based. They nearly had me too, two years ago I was running 3 games a month, and realized I was paying out 50$ a month on games that cost me 50 up front.
No, and we are being lead down the path to the slaughter house by the ring in our collective nose's. Your post there has nailed this right on the head. Even now, MS is pushing new OS's on us before we are ready to part with the one they just patched to perfection. (there is another sore point, when I go out a spend $200+ for software, it should NOT require 6 hours of patching over T1..... but thats another topic).
You are quite right, this is a business model designed to create a permanent flow from our wallets to their bank accounts.. If you want me to pay for it, then I want to OWN it.. plain and simple.
Nice post.

I have one that I pay a monthly fee for, Rhapsody and thats for the music not the software
I'm like yall, if your gonna make me pay a lot out front, then I should own it