I hope this example inspires Apple in doing the same. Currently if someone gets a refund in the MAS, in practice he keeps his app for free. I saw the number of refunds growing along the years. I suspect a significant number of those are people who found a trick to enjoy software for free.
If we had an API to freeze their software in case of refund, that would probably dissuade thieves.
The Mac App Store needs some love, some fundamental love. Alas it, like the Mac are the ugly step children from Apple’s past relationships.
In fact to be honest something like this could easily be done without the developer having to change anything. The storeagent is able to read & write the App Store receipts in the bundle. All it need be is when a refund is processed, a message is posted on the users account, the App Store application periodically checks this messages and when it finds a refund for a product, it goes and removes the receipt file.
I’ll add this to my book that I’m writing, which I’m sending to Tim Cook. It started off a small to-do list of things Apple have done which are not good for the Mac platform… I think it’s now closer to the bible in page count.