OK, I think that the short-term licenses are a bit crazy, but give them some credit. There's a non-expiring option as well -- Free updates "forever". I don't think 109 dollars is particularly expensive for an application you consider to be the best in its class. I've paid more for my favorite graphics program and know I'll be paying an upgrade fee next major version change. The difference, here, is Pixarra is telling you straight up how long you've got rather than leaving it to the version numbering.
The way I see it, while seeming strange in presentation, they have a really cool licensing program. The software is 109 dollars and you never have to pay to upgrade. If you only need graphic software for a temporary project, you can buy a time limited license.
I wish more software companies offered non-expiry, personally.
As for licensing programs that bug me, I'm not fond of Eudora's $50/year plan, but if I think about it -- I pay more per year for something I'd use less (if I were a Eudora user, that is). My pet peave, though, is Linspire -- after you buy the OS at 80 or so bucks, you're going to need a paid subscription to their software warehouse to make the OS remotely useful. The Linspire guy who writes the newsletter is always calling Microsoft an evil giant--only difference I see between MS/Linspire is Linspire isn't giant but at least as evil.
