LX7007C - Firmware expired

I'm posting this mainly as a sanity check. I seem to be banging
my head against a brick wall with LXNavigation. I'm in a
DuoDiscus syndicate. The glider had an LX7007 IGC FLARM
fitted with rear seat repeater. Last winter we had the units
factory upgraded to the new LX7007C, with the new colour
displays. I would recommend the upgrade, the speed
improvement on map redrawing alone is worth the money. Its
fair to say that the first firmware release is "incomplete", rather
than buggy.

For a range of reasons the glider hadn't been flown in
September, I flew it on the 29th. As I powered up the unit I got
a message saying that the firmware had expired, clicked ok,
then the unit started working fine. To be honest I thought no
more of it. On Sunday evening I spotted this link on the
lxnavigation website

http://www.lxnavigation.si/avionics/...nloads/LX_7007
_C.pdf

Basically the unit's have been programmed to stop working on
1st October unless they have a firmware update applied. No
advance warning was given in any of the product
documentation, or manuals, or until very recently on their
website. The new update is free so there is no implication that
they will charge in the future to keep the unit alive.

I cannot understand why they would make such an instrument
(basically GPS, electric vario, moving map, flarm, airspace
warnings etc, just stop working on a fixed date. If I hadn't flown
on Sunday I would have derigged and gone "up North" for some
ridge and wave, rigged the glider and discovered the problem in
the launch queue at a weekend, wasting a good flying day while
I sorted it out - assuming internet access was available.


Since Sunday I have had email exchanges with John Delafield,
the agent and directly with LXNavigation support. John has
behaved impeccably, I cannot fault his support in any way.
However my problem is with the factory. They will not enter into
any meaningful discussion as to why they have done this. I
cannot even get an answer to the question "Will the new release,
3.1, expire?"

I thought we had bought the instruments, this feels like we have
leased them.

I said I was after a sanity check, do people think its reasonable
to ship instruments like this that "time expire" without making it
clear at the time of purchase?

FLARM is a different case, its a collaborative technology that
needs regular updates and all the websites are plastered with
information.

Is it just me?

Richard