So it’s ok when a megacorp like Microsoft does it, but if an individual developer does it then it’s a crime? When you fail to pay for Windows, it turns off various features, does it not? When you stop paying for your MMO, it stops letting you play the game, right? So if I am contracted to develop some accounting software and they fail to pay me, why shouldn’t it stop working?

This is why it would only be a contract dispute; they will argue that the contract did not state up front that if they failed to pay the developer that the software wouldn’t work. The MMO certainly has pages and pages of legalese that everyone knows lets the MMO’s developer get away with anything they want. The independent contractor needs explicit language in their contract to specify exactly what will happen if they aren’t paid on time. That should include late fees, but probably also software that refuses to work until someone fills out a credit card payment form.