You really don't want the government interfering with the implementation details and business models of software products. That's a really bad road to go down.

The problem is really a lack of inspiration for both the dev and user. In this case someone made a trivial tool and didn't know how else to monetize it than being a scumbag and exploiting social norms and good will. The user also decided to use something that's dumb and not worth risking making any agreement with any entity at all.

Situations like this are where free software excels. Things that are inconsequential in premise should stay that way in practice.