Thank you for the reply, most helpful.

 To clarify, the software doesn't expire but business critical FEATURES EXPIRE or are DEACTIVATED such as printing paychecks and emailing invoices.  It's not really that they are no longer supported, although that is their legal statement.  You have to pay the ransom and purchase the product again at full price to get the email and payroll to work again.  You don't want or need any new features, you only want back what you purchased and was working before.    In another era, this was known as High Seas Piracy.  Today it could be considered by any reasonably intelligent person to be subject to a class action lawsuit and even perhaps Federal charges under the  RICO act  (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act)...;.