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They don't have to sell it to you at all.

Not much point in writing the software if you're not going to distribute it.

But I do not have the RIGHT to take something that belongs to my neighbor either.

But the developers don't have a natural right to the software, unlike the natural right your neighbor has to his property. The software belongs to everyone by default, but the Constitution allows for a limited monopoly of rights solely for the purpose of advancing the arts and sciences.

Thus, they can tell me all day long that I can't re-sell or make backup copies of software, but the right to tell me that wasn't granted to them by copyright. Any extension of power beyond copyright that they try to grab with a EULA is by definition invalid, because copyright is what gives them the right to say anything in the first place.

Not much point in writing the software if you're not going to distribute it.

I once wrote a machine language roulette wheel application for a Vic 20... used it once for a Casino Night at our lodge.

I used all but ONE BYTE of the memory including the 5K expansion cartridge... I could not add even one more thing to it or it wouldn't run.

It worked great. It made the sound of the wheel turning, the ball bouncing and clicking, slowing down, and the colors flashing numbers and random black or red with a proper red or black or green 0 or 00 (well the house had to win sometime) and settling down to the winning pocket with the image of a ball on the screen.

It was a hit.

But I never distributed it because I could not guaranty that the random number generator was truly random... I was using a large seed but the Vic 20 really had no way to manipulate it and make it random. I kept seeing patterns start to duplicate after about 20 spins. And with only 1 byte left, I didn't have enough space left to experiment with trying other approaches to randomizations of the seed... and everything else I tried left me with less space and I would have to give up some of the neat things I had done. So, its probably somewhere in my desk on a casette... dried and cracked...

My problem with copyrights has to do with the sudden increase in longevity of the copyrights. I had no problem with copyright for the life of the author... but now they've allowed them to be extended to the life plus, I think, it's 50 years... and if the author is a corporation... who knows. I would like to see it a more reasonable term. In music, there are only so many ways that 15 notes can be arranged before you start duplicating something that has already been done before... and there are only 31 basic story lines in literature. How many basic applications are there possible in software? How many basic inventions are there? Idea inventions instead of implementation inventions are becoming a real problem... when we started allowing the patents for a mere idea, without requiring the technology for implementing that idea, we opened pandora's box of infringement lawsuits.

I have no problem with the OS X lawsuit against Psystar. What they were doing is clearly wrong. But Apple should not have a 100 year control over OS X. 15 or 20 years for each upgrade is enough and then that version should move to the public domain. ON the other hand, Disney's control over its characters of Mickey and Donald are creative Icons equivalent to Trademarks and should be protected so long as Disney exists, Similarly an author of a book should be able to reap the rewards of royalties throughout his lifetime, and perhaps his children as well... but should his grandchildren? I would draw the line a few years after his death. Let the kids build their own legacies. Patents should require implementation in technology to be granted... not just mere ideas. If the inventor cannot demonstrate how his idea can be accomplished practically, he has not invented anything. Its the person who accomplishes it that is the true inventor and should be given the monopoly to enjoy the fruits of his invention.