Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a DOSbox story as well. A customer requested an emergency change to some firmware that was built for an old 8051-based platform. We had a single instance of the compiler from [redacted] available on a PC that was left in a closet for a decade or so. The compiler maker was still in business but wanted 15 years of extortion-level "retroactive support" payments to let us move the license to a newer machine, and I…
Good for an emergency, but I'd make sure to calmly move to an open 8051 compiler. Because screw that awful vendor.
Porting was the backup plan but time was of the essence, so the hack worked. Validation of brand new object code would have been a huge pain. But yeah, I would Assume that Renewing the license would have killed the project.