i don't think that's a real threat -- i don't think development environments are likely a huge income source for them, either.

i think they'd be better served by letting me develop more quickly, so I can help my company grow, and presumably need (and have the budget for!) more resources in our production environment.

if i'm mistaken, i think it's reasonable to have some sort of built in time limit to how long the appliance will run for, or some other way of preventing it being used for non-development purposes.