Chris,
I couldn't agree more.
To clarify it for Bjorn: most of the programs you think you buy are actually leased to you, which you will find out if you read the small print in the End User License Agreement (EULA). With simpler programs nobody takes notice of it or cares because you can reinstall them anywhere from the master CD as long as you have your original CD key (or whatever else the authors of the particular program call this line of ASCII characters that unlocks the program at installation time).
Programs like Pro/E force you to take notice because their makers try to enforce the terms of EULA with various 'protection' schemes. By the way, other solid modeling programs are sold..., er, sorry, licensed, to you, on the same terms. If you ever try to transfer a license of, for example, SolidWorks to somebody else you will find out that they have exactly the same licensing terms. As far as I know, they are much more flexible in application of those terms than PTC, but that's not the point. Right now they choose to be flexible, out of the goodness of their hearts (and no doubt to look good when compared side-by-side to PTC), but at any moment they can choose to enforce their licensing terms in just as boorish a manner as PTC does.
I think that the only good solution to this can be open source. I already use OpenOffice instead of MS Office and the more I use it, the more I like it. It would be wonderful to have something like that competing with Pro/E. However, programs like Pro/E being orders of magnitude more complex than, say, MS Office, and simultaneously having orders of magnitude fewer users, I don't see open source community getting all that interested. Also, it is fairly easy to maintain compatibility with MS Office file formats. Now try doing the same with proprietary encrypted Pro/E files without buying a Granite license...