I'm not ANTI Provocraft I am PRO FREEDOM

Not that anyone is concerned with my thoughts regarding the recent settlement between the creator of Make The Cut(MTC) and Provocraft(PC), but I felt I needed to say something for my own personal record.  Obviously PC made a foolish mistake when they chose to cut off a large portion of their customer base by restricting creativity.  When I first looked at purchasing a die cutter the main reason I chose a Cricut machine was due to the fact that it wasn't computer dependent.  I thought if my computer crashed I would still be able to cut.  This is truly a nice feature.  Of course at this time I knew very little about die cutting machines nor did I have a clue about third party software.  In fact, MTC did not exist when I purchased my machine.  I then purchased Design Studio as I realized how limiting just using the cartridges was becoming.  At least I could weld letters and create titles and so on.  I had no idea how useless this program was.  I happened to be on another blog where the crafter was talking about MTC.  This person now has no mention of the program on her blog, by the way, I guess PC got to her.  I looked into it, saw some videos on You Tube and decided to download the trial version.  At the time I didn't have the money to spend so I played around with the trial for a while.  When I saw how easy it was to use, I was amazed.  I thought it was cool to be able to do such simple things that I now take for granted when using MTC.  DS can't even dream of doing any of it!  Finally I made the purchase about a year ago and it was the BEST money I have ever spent!  I find it hard to even consider using DS or my Gypsy (I regretfully purchased this for way too much money during the world launch hype on HSN.).  And now with this settlement my freedom to create how I want to create has been taken away because I can't exactly go out and buy another machine right now.  I realize if I don't update MTC it will still work with my machine, but I have seen the amazing updates that have come out for this program and I am very disappointed I will not be able to take advantage of the ones in the future unless I make an investment in an entirely new machine.  I have several cartridges as well, which I have enjoyed using although I haven't used them as much as I used to and I haven't bought one in several months.  I would actually feel guilty selling everything as I don't want anyone else to get hooked into this company!  I was actually considering getting a new Expression as they are clearing them out at my local Wal Mart, but as a result of this decision I will definitely not be doing that.  I find it hard to use products from a company that wants to corner the market and is only looking at their bottom line and not focusing on customer satisfaction.  People have been crying out for PC to improve their software, but they have been ignored.  How can I use products from a company like this???  This is the same company that shunned a large portion of their customers by creating a club only for those who could shell out a large sum of cash for NOTHING!  I have read many complaints about the Circle.  Yet at the same time, I have quite a bit invested in their products and I purchased them because I wanted to use them.  I will still use what I have, but I have no intention of buying anything PC ever again.  And when I can afford to I will replace what I have with another product from a company that realizes their customers are the reason they exist. I don't wish to bash PC, as their products are the reason I got so interested in paper crafting which has made my life more joyful.  But I can't support any company that places restrictions on what I can do with a machine I paid for. Shame on you PC!  And now I'm off to create....freely.