Paying for software is retarded.

The idea of paying for something so intangible and (99% of the time) useless to our every day lives is a joke.
truly profound or preforms outstandingly, then donations should be made possible to support the developer(s) alone for a number of reasons:

1: Donations received don't have to be taxed. Win-win for the developer(s) and the charitable soul.
2:Donations sent up to 100$ are tax exempt, meaning they can be written off on your tax forms. That is free money you get back. FIAT is a joke.
3: Donations are not scamming anyone.

The way I see it, begrudgingly paying 80$+ for a windows key is a scam, but willingly donating 80$+ to someone who made a program that quadruples your productivity is not.

By purchasing software, you never truly have access to the source code. So do you really own the program?
To better explain my point I will use the analogy of how transactions of physical goods typically go:
If I buy a coat, I may alter it as I please.
The coat is something I transferred one article of property (currency) for another (the coat) to be granted ownership of the item.
With the vast majority of paid software, you truly don't own it. You can't alter it.
You can't even audit the source code to verify it isn't spying on you. It's a scam.
Additionally, pirated software runs better than the commercially available versions.
In all Adobe crapware, there are license verification background checks running every 5 seconds, if not more frequently.
This non-stop license verification process causes the software to consume tremendously more computational resources.
Cracked versions of Adobe software strip this license verification process entirely.
Pirated versions of Photoshop run like a totally new program. Everything is more responsive and most of the annoying hangs/freezes disappear entirely.
Ironic, Isn't it?