Regardless, it's a pretty sleazy way to do business. And I say we let these types of businesses die if given the chance. Practices like these divert resources (capital, time, manpower, etc.) which only serves to hinder both economic and technological progression. One might argue that some of the technologies that arise from these types of businesses count as advancement, but I would wager that if the same resources were used for creating things that truly simplify life (rather than keep them unnecessarily complicated) we would all be much better off by now. But of course, what's done is done; so to maximize our potential and our throughput in the future, we really need to do our best to prevent businesses from acting similarly.

I'm totally with you on that. The amount of resources wasted is immense, but what are you going to do? Prevent lobbying? Tough luck, where else do politicians get their campaign contributions from?

No really, the political system is broken in that respect, which is why companies like Intuit can pull off things like this.