Will my NIS2009 Deactivate when my subscription ends!?

With finances the way they are at the moment, I will not be able to renew my subscription for updates before my software subscription expires (in 13 days).  Will NIS just stop working at that time? Should I just uninstall it upon subscription expiration?  Are we really just leasing this product from Symantec by the year or will I just be unable to download new updates to the application/virus database.

 

I've been getting varied answers around the net from various forums from (No it will just remind you in large red letters it's expired") to others claiming they are actually testing the software on VM's through purposeful infection / firewall intrusion to prove that the software no longer works.

 

I would be eternally grateful if someone could answer this finally.  I understand the risks involved not running updates etc, but I DREAD having to download MacAffee from my ISP's "free" with my service junk knowing that it will be full of adds, plus McAffee has always been horrible about just badgering you to buy even more software from them.

 

Last note. NIS 2009 is VERY nice, VERY low system resource usage, ability to turn off updates etc while gaming etc.  My previous experiences with Norton (from 2001 on up) was that it was a bloated piece of software heavy on resources and not worth installing (and almost impossible to unistall when you wanted to).  I can't say on the uninstall part on NIS 2009, however the resource usage, and other such items too many to mention here, make this an excellent piece of software I would hate to lose for a few months while finances catch up.

 

Thanks for anyone that actually knows to read this long post and answer me. Thanks!