system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does winRAR say it has a 40 day trial yet, never runs out?
gpt
winRAR lets you continue to use it even after the 40 day trial has ended because that's the best way for them to make money.

If winRAR really only had a 40-day trial, and you had to buy the program after that 40-day trial, less people would use winRAR and therefore it wouldn't be as well-known, therefore less people would use it and less people would buy it.

If winRAR said that it was completely free, they wouldn't get any money at all.

The way winRAR is right now, it is extremely widely used, and therefore they get many users who actually pay for the program and give the developers money because either 1. The users don't realize they can continue using it after the 40 days, or 2. The users feel obligated to pay because they aren't comfortable exploiting the fact that you can continue using the software.

TLDR: They are trying to make you feel like you have to pay while still controlling most of the market share.