Angry Developer Bites Back By Deleting User's Data

ultima has brought up a story from SlashDot that raised a controversial ethical concern on how far can software owners go with the End-User License Agreement (EULA).

An independent software developer of a Mac program called Echelon bites back at users who pirated his software by deleting their Home Directory (some what equivalent to the profile folder on Windows) if a pirated serial was entered.

Regardless to a more dominating angry response, some users actually approved this decision by arguing that the terms have been mentioned on the EULA which was agreed to by the users. Even with that being said, does this make it "okay" for developers to cross the line? Better yet, where exactly do you draw the line?

Echelon is an MPEG1/2 converter that supports a number of different formats. According to the product's web site, the software has been discontinued due to the lack of support (read: piracy) but legitimate customers may still seek product support via email.

View: Echelon web site