It's actually about par for the course for installing any trial version of a pricey commerical software product. It's never free with no strings attached. They want your email address so they can follow up with non-ending streams of marketing, etc.
Re: Funny blog, but I've seen worse (Score: 2, Insightful)
For me though the worst part isn't the fact that you have to pay for it, it's the fact they finally make you download some sketchy downloader program - it's just another hoop. Sun used to do the same with downloaders of openoffice and the like - jump through the hoop, fill out the forms, push the buttons, and here comes the download! No - it's just the downloader and when you get done installing that, only then do you get to start downloading the software you went out looking for in the first place.