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IT FOR MANAGERS
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ANOOP S PILLAIROLL NO: 06PGDM-IB
SOFTWARE LICENSING
A software license is a legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protectedsoftware. A typical software license grants an end-user permission to use one or more copies of software in ways where such a use would otherwise constitute infringement of the software publisher's exclusive rights under copyright law. In effect, the software license acts as a promisefrom the software publisher to not sue the end-user for engaging in activities that would normally be considered exclusive rights belonging to the software.Software licensing is a contract of agreement between the software publisher and the end user,sometimes referred to as the End User License Agreement, or EULA. Though software licensingcan be a paper agreement, it is most often imbedded in the software itself as part of the installation process. This aborts the installation process. In most cases, end users click in agreement whether they actually read the license or not.Most notably, software licensing protects the copyright by placing restrictions on the end user inrelation to the product. Duplication for purposes other than backup, installation on more than onecomputer, editing the code, or changing the program in any way is usually forbidden. Softwarelicenses might also restrict reverse engineering and bypassing controls intended to cut down on pirating.Software licenses can generally be fit into the following categories:
Proprietary licenses
Free software license/Open source licensesThe feature that distinguishes them is significant in terms of the effect they have on the end-user'srights.
Proprietary software licenses
The hallmark of proprietary software licenses is that the software publisher grants a license to useone or more copies of software, but that ownership of those copies remains with the software
publisher (hence use of the term "proprietary”. Only a very limited set of well-defined rights areconceded to the end-user.One example of such a proprietary software license is the license for
Microsoft Windows
. As isusually the case with proprietary software licenses, this license contains an extensive list of activities which are restricted, such as: reverse engineering simultaneous use of the software bymultiple users, and publication of benchmarks or performance tests.
Free software license
Free software is not 'free' in the sense of unconditional enjoyment of the software. It is a softwarewhich is licensed to the end user under a License which follows the substantially the model terms prescribed by the FSF advocated GNU GPL and other similar software License Agreements. Inother words, the Original publisher/Author retains the actual Title (copyrights) to the softwarelicensed to the Licensee. (There is no change in the ownership of the software. This License insteadof granting limited rights to the Licensee grants all Rights (which for other intellectual property products like books etc is 'this right and not all') except the right sell license it on different terms.The only restricting clause in this kind of software license is the one which restricts the right of Licensee to further License the software on different terms than under the free software license.This one condition makes it obligatory for the Licensee to further License any derivative software built from the open source software to be licensed only on Open source license. The overall effectof the Licensing system of the free software movement is perpetuation of free use of software.Commercial Licensing for a profit is also prohibited by the above free software License.An example of a Free Software license is the
General Public License (GPL).
This license is aimedat giving the end-user significant permission, such as permission to redistribute, reverse engineer,or otherwise modify the software. These permissions are not entirely free of obligations for theend-user, however. The end-user must comply with certain terms if the end-user wishes to exercisethese extra permissions granted by the GPL. For instance, any modifications made andredistributed by the end-user must include the source code for these, and the end-user is notallowed to re-assert the removed copyright restrictions back over their derivative work.
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| Upload Date: | 09/08/2009 |
| Copyright: | Attribution Non-commercial |
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