The story goes back to last September, when a Ham
Radio Deluxe customer posted a negative review of the product on a ham radio
website. HRD management became aware of the review and added the customer's
callsign to an internal "problem customer" list that blocked him from
running future versions of the software. In December, the customer encountered
some problems and created a "trouble ticket," according to Carper. A
technician suggested that he install the latest version of the software, not
knowing that it would not run under the customer's call. Apparently, the
customer then had trouble re-installing the previous version and took his beef
to social media, complaining (inaccurately, according to Carper) that HRD had
hacked his computer. The post went viral and was reposted on a variety of
blogs.
In addition to Ruhl's departure, Carper said the
capability to disable the program based on a customer's callsign has been
removed from the software and the license agreement has been modified to
clarify that a customer has a perpetual license to use the version of the
software that he/she has purchased.
