Many physical products and services are advertised with 30 days money back guarantee, and some software as well. Many stores claims that for everything... except "unpacked" audio/video/software content.
But I have seen some strange software related scenario: you have 30 days money back for the device, TILL you have registered the software which comes with it (and the device is sometimes useless without this software). If you find the software has too many bugs (may be triggered by beta quality drivers, but why that should matter) and the hardware has no problems, you have already lost 30 days return right and you can not use guarantee. May be new rules can help avoid that.

If I was a small software developer I would simply give everybody a 30 day free trial and not let that expire regardless of whether a product has been bought, just add it on and turn that remaining time into a cool off period... Then it's hard to argue anything in court.

Isnt that what a two week or a 30 day no restrictions demo is for? 

I think this will force some decent changes... a shift to more unrestricted timed out demos; a shift to revocable license platforms like NI's and ILok's systems to protect developers; better software QA...
 
Seems to me the one downer is that wave file products, which are truly useful for visualizing and placing impacts, risers, and whooshbangs in a timeline might go by the wayside...things like Alpha, Bravo & Juggernaut...  that would be sad.  Maybe a developer could offer a locked down file system until a 30 day return expired then provide the waves after.
 
All in all, a good move... forces some changes and removes the whining rational behind many who complain about protection systems....which might allow more good developers to survive.

Ultimately you'd have a lot fewer developers producing products and would be paying a lot more for each product available. Not necessarily a win overall...

smallstonefan
Ultimately you'd have a lot fewer developers producing products and would be paying a lot more for each product available. Not necessarily a win overall...

Not seeing how a 30 day return amounts to fewer developers. I could imagine Republicans however using that as some sort of excuse to take away consumer rights (not saying you are Republican!).

I am not a republican. :)
 
The reality is all software has issues, and good companies address them and evolve over time; no one gets it perfect right out of the gate.
 
What I am saying is if you open up a nebulous return policy which allows anyone with buyers remorse to return for some such "bug" or "missing feature" then you will have a problem. Most guys here with GAS would return a lot of product if they could within 30 days. Developers would have a hard time managing cash flow, and they would have to invest heavily in development and QA to make sure each and every potential issue was squashed to prevent such returns - a bigger expense and time suck than you can imagine if you're not producing commercial software.
 
Buyers should be protected, but so should the development shops.
 
 
 

Could easily be managed though, see just before my last post as to how. Just give away the product for 30 days. Then take their money on day 31.

If lots of people returned or cancelled their product so what, doubt it will lose sales and if it does it will probably improve quality, decades ago most people used pirated software, and somehow the industry managed to survive. Not only that the people who used pirated products ended up buying the product much later. Was a very good loss leader..

Wow, I disagree with you on so many levels there. :) I'll just agree to disagree and bow out of this one...

By all means happy to hear the arguement. This isn't a right or wrong discussion. Interested to listen honestly...