Software Licensing
A
software license is a legally binding agreement that specifies the
terms of use for an application and defines the rights of the software
producer and of the
end-user.
All software must be legally licensed before it may be
installed. Proof of purchase (purchase orders, receipts, invoices or
similar documentation is acceptable) must be maintained by individuals
or departments for all non-ITS provided software
that is installed on a university-owned computer. Vendors may require
proof of purchase during an audit, and technical support staff may ask
for proof of purchase before software can be reinstalled on a computer
that has been remedied or rebuilt.
Software
licensing can be a confusing subject. There are different types of
licenses and licensing contracts, and different vendors may use
different terms to describe their licenses. Here are some key terms to
help you navigate through these murky waters.Software
licenses can generally be fit into the following categories:
proprietary licenses and free and open source. The significant feature
that distinguishes them are the terms under which the end-user may
further distribute or copy the software.
Types of licenses
Proprietary license Most software licenses are "proprietary" licenses, meaning the software publisher grants
a license to
use one or more copies of the software, but that
ownership
of those copies remains with the software publisher. The user must
accept the license before they are permitted to use the software. The
hallmark of proprietary
software licenses is that the software publisher grants the use of one
or more copies of software under the end-user license agreement (EULA),
but ownership of those copies remains with the software publisher (hence
the use of the term "proprietary"). This
feature of proprietary software licenses means that certain rights
regarding the software are reserved by the software publisher.
Therefore, it is typical of EULAs to include terms which define the uses
of the software, such as the number of installations
allowed or the terms of distribution.The most significant effect of
this form of licensing is that, if ownership of the software remains
with the software publisher, then the end-user
must accept the
software license. In other words, without acceptance
of the license, the end-user may not use the software at all. One
example of such a proprietary software license is the license for
Microsoft Windows. As is usually 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 by multiple users, and publication of benchmarks or
performance tests.
The most common licensing models is per single
user (named user, client, node) or per user in
the appropriate volume discount level, while some manufacturers
accumulate existing licenses. These open volume license programs are
typically called Open License Program (OLP), Transactional License
Program (TLP), Volume License Program (VLP) etc. and are
contrary to the Contractual License Program (CLP), where the customer
commits to purchase a certain amount of licenses over a fixed period
(mostly two years). Licensing per concurrent/floating user also occurs,
where all users in a network have access to the
program, but only a specific number at the same time. Another license
model is licensed per dongle which allows the owner of the dongle to use
the program on any computer. Licensing per server, CPU or points,
regardless the number of users, is common practice
as well as Site or Company Licenses. Sometimes one can choose between
perpetual (permanent) and annual license. For perpetual licenses, one
year of maintenance is often required, but maintenance (subscription)
renewals are discounted. For annual licenses,
there is no Renewal, a new license must be purchased after expiration.
Licensing can be Host/Client (or Guest), Mailbox, IP-Address, Domain
etc., depending on how the program is used. Additional users are inter
alia licensed per Extension Pack (e.g. Up to
99 users) which includes the Base Pack (e.g. 5 users). Some programs
are modular, so one will have to buy a base product before they can use
other modules.
Free and open-source software licenses
GNU General Public License
These are agreements under which much "open source" software is
licensed. End users may do things like change the source code, but any
refinements of the software must also be made available under a GNU GPL
license. Often referred to as "free, copyleft"
licenses, the software may or may not be distributed for a fee - "free"
refers to the ability of users to change and distribute modifications
of the software, not to cost. See the
GNU General Public License
web page for more information.
End User License Agreement (EULA)
Also called "clickwraps" or "shrinkwraps," EULAS indicate the terms
under which the end-user may use the software. Agreements with
organizations or companies often
take the form of contracts between the organization and the software
publisher or vendor, and specify the terms of use for all users from the
organization, superseding any EULAs which may come with the software.
Workstation licenses
These are licenses that permit the installation of an application on a
single computer. You may not install the software on more than one
machine unless you purchase a license for each additional machine. Most
workstation license agreements allow you to
make a single backup copy of the software as long as that backup copy
is used only to restore the software onto the same machine, or a
separate machine if the software is removed from the original computer.
Concurrent use license
These are licenses that permit you to install the software onto
multiple machines as long as the number of computers using the software
at the same time does not exceed the number of licenses which you have
purchased. Concurrent use licenses are usually
used in conjunction with "license manager" software that prevents the
number of licenses from being exceeded. At UNCG, ITS uses KeyServer
software that monitors and controls the use of concurrent use licensed
software.
Site licenses A site license
permits the use of software on any computer at a specified site.
Unlimited site licenses allow the installation of software on any number
of computers as long as those computers are located at the specified
site. Some site licenses permit
the installation on computers owned by a particular entity (such as a
university) regardless of the physical location. Some vendors refer to
their licenses as site licenses but restrict the number of computers on
which the software may be installed. The only
way to know for sure is to read the license specifics.
Apache License
The
Apache License is a free software license written by the Apache
Software Foundation. The Apache License requires preservation of the
copyright notice and
disclaimer. Like other free software licenses, the license allows the
user of the software the freedom to use the software for any purpose, to
distribute it, to modify it, and to distribute modified versions of the
software, under the terms of the license,
without concern for royalties. The Apache License is widely, but not
universally
, considered permissive in that it does not
require a derivative work of the software, or modifications to the
original, to be distributed using the same license. It
still requires application of the same license to all unmodified parts
and, in every licensed file, any original copyright, patent, trademark,
and attribution notices in redistributed code must be preserved and, in
every licensed file changed, a notification
must be added stating that changes have been made to that file.
Visit: http: //www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Perpetual licenses
These are licenses without expiration dates, which
permit use of the software indefinitely, without requiring a recurring
fee for continued use. Most software that individuals buy for use on
their home computers are perpetual licenses.
Non-perpetual licenses
These are licenses
that "lease" the software for use for a specified period of time,
usually annually or sometimes bi-annually. Users are required to remove
the software from their computer if they cease paying the license fee.
License with Maintenance
Some license agreements allow the user to purchase "maintenance" or
"software assurance" along with the original license fee, which entitles
the user to receive new versions of the software for one to two years
until the maintenance agreement expires.
Beta or field test This type of license is used to
get feedback so usually expire at the end of the Beta test and are not
renewed. The product is likely not be „production grade‟ and the
licensee may be required to exercise the software
under certain conditions and to submit reports, as well as limit use to
defined environments and users that fit a specific profile.
IBM Public License
The
IBM Public License (IPL) is a free softwere / open-source software
license
written and sometimes used by IBM. It is approved by the Free Software
Foundation (FSF) and described as a "open-source license" by the Open
Source Initiative. The IPL differs from the GNU General Public License
(GPL), in that it places the liability on the
publisher or
distributor of the licensed software
code. According to IBM, this is to facilitate commercial use of
open-source software, without placing the contributor at a risk of
liability. Proponents of the IPL note a clearer definition
of responsibility for software code than that of the GPL.
Artistic License
The
Artistic License (version 1.0) is a software license used for certain
free and open source software packages, most notably the standard
implementation
of the Perl programming language and most CPAN modules, which are
dual-licensed under the Artistic License and the GNU General Public
License (GPL). The original Artistic License was written by Larry Wall.
The name of the license is a reference to the concept
of artistic license.
Visit: http://opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license
Berkeley DB
Berkeley
DB (BDB) is a software library that provides a high-performance
embedded database for key/value data. Berkeley DB is written
in C with API bindings for C++, C#, PHP, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl,
Smalltalk, and many other programming languages. BDB stores arbitrary
key/data pairs as byte arrays, and supports multiple data items for a
single key. Berkeley DB is not a relational
database.
BDB can support thousands of simultaneous threads of
control or concurrent processes manipulating databases as large as 256
terabytes, on a wide variety of operating systems including most
Unix-like and Windows systems, and real-time operating
systems. "Berkeley DB" is also used as the common brand name for three
distinct products: Oracle Berkeley DB, Berkeley DB Java Edition, and
Berkeley DB XML. These three products all share a common ancestry and
are currently under active development at Oracle
Corporation.Berkeley DB has an architecture notably simpler than that
of other database systems like relational database management systems.
Visit: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/downloads/licensing-098979.html
Boost
license
Boost is a set of libraries for the C++
programming language that provide support for tasks and structures such
as linear algebra, pseudorandom number generation, multithreading, image
processing, regular expressions, and unit testing.
It contains over eighty individual libraries.
Most of the Boost
libraries are licensed under the Boost Software License, designed to
allow Boost to be used with both free and proprietary software projects.
Many of Boost's founders are on the C++ standards
committee, and several Boost libraries have been accepted for
incorporation into both Technical Report 1 and the C++ standard.
Visit: http://www.boost.org/users/license.html
Apple Public Source License
The
Apple Public
Source License is the open source and free software license. The first
version of the Apple Public Source License was approved by the Open
Source Initiative. Version 2.0, released July 29, 2003, is also approved
as a free software license by the Free
Software Foundation (FSF) which finds it acceptable for developers to
work on projects that are already covered by this license. However, the
FSF recommends that developers should not release new projects under
this license, because the partial copy left is
not compatible with the GNU General Public License and allows linking
with files released entirely as proprietary software. The license does
require that if any derivatives of the original source are released
externally, their source should be made available.
Visit:http://www.opensource.apple.com/license/apsl/
Academic Free License(AFL)
The
AFL is a free software license. It includes a complete copyright grant
to the software. It contains a complete patent grant to the software;
The AFL makes clear what software is being licensed by including a
statement following the software's copyright notice; It makes clear that
no trademark rights are granted to the licensor's trademarks; It
warrants that the licensor either owns the copyright
or is distributing the software under a license; It is itself
copyrighted, with the right granted to copy and distribute without
modification.
Visit:
http://opensource.org/licenses/AFL-3.0
Capacity
or performance A licensing model based on the host computer‟s
(one or more servers‟) capacity or performance can be used for
compute-intensive applications such as databases or transaction
processing. However, the complexity and diversity of computers,
platforms, networks and fabrics make deriving relevant metrics
extremely equivocal. The business value is likely to be not at all
related to CPU cycles nor processes invoked.
Cross license These
are used when the licensor and licensee(s)
agree to exchange rights. The rights are not necessarily symmetrical,
nor no-fee. It can be a way for people to leverage their intellectual
property by exchanging value on a no-cash basis. Also see Development
License and Group License.
Demo
or evaluation Such licenses are granted for a short time such
as 30 days or a number of uses. Usually, production-level work is not
allowed and some features may be limited or disabled, or it may have a
time bomb that disables the product at a certain
time. The types of users, platforms, content or tools may also be
prescribed.
Development These licenses can
require granting rights to modify the software, or in some cases, to
create derivative works. Alternatively, the grantor may
want rights to modify the output of the development effort; or the
licensee may need to retain residual rights in order to support the
output. Development licenses are used to gain special knowledge and to
supplement engineering effort.
Duplicate
grouping (license sharing) by user, host or display Grouping
defines rules for counting usage when a single user concurrently runs
the same application on several computers. This instance may count as a
single use or a multiple use, depending on the
license terms.
End User License Agreements (EULA), Shrink Wrap or “click through” These
are most common license models for online and single user software.
They usually grant the perpetual right to use, only for one end-user
on one computer at a time, and do not include any upgrades.
Enable/disable product features Common
features such as personalization may be licensed across a suite of
products. This type of license grants rights to use specific features.
It is used to create an upgrade path from a “lite” version to
“standard,” “pro,” “enterprise” etc. versions without modifying the
software nor uninstalling the existing version.
Exclusive In
exclusive licenses, the licensee is the only party to which certain
rights are granted. Such licenses are rare because they increase the
licensor‟s opportunity cost. The rigorous limitations to exclusivity can
be any combination of time, territory, industry,
named competitors, exercisable features (singly, in combination or in
unrelated groups), field of use, or any of the myriad of possible
business or legal terms.
Floating (concurrent) over a list of hosts Such licenses provide for concurrent
use in a network, but the license rights are tied to a specific list of computers.
Floating (concurrent) over a network This type of license grants a specific number of concurrent users on a network.
Group License This
type of license can be used to develop a consortium. It grants rights
only to members of a specific group such as named entities, or those
that adhere to a particular standard, or have received a particular
certification. Group licenses may require licensees
to grant special rights to all members of the group such as mandatory
no-fee cross-licensing.
High-water mark of past use Usage fees are calculated based on the maximum number of concurrent users in a defined past time period (typically
monthly).
Linger use The user has license
rights for a fixed time period. Linger licenses are attractive for
applications that are used for very short periods such as a few seconds
or minutes. They increase the number of low-cost licenses
that larger customers must buy, while small customers may enjoy a lower
price thereby allowing the vendor to reach a broader audience through
pricing.
Named-user (personal licenses) License
rights are granted to specific login IDs.
The software may be used on any computer by a login ID that is on a
list of licensed users. A single login ID can only use the software at
one time, no concurrent log-ins by the same ID.
Node-locked (named-host) Software
is licensed
for use only on one or more named computer systems. Usually, CPU serial
number verification is used to enforce this type of license.
Node-locked counted Software is licensed for a limited number if concurrent users on a single computer
system.
OEM Such licenses are used to allow
OEMs to integrate software into their products or services, then sell
the combined product. OEM licenses must grant rights such as
sub-licensing so that the OEM can transfer rights to its
channels and customers. Payments to the licensor can include license
fees; royalties per license; percentage of product revenue; number, type
and size of accounts or users.
Overdraft Such
licenses grant N more licenses than were purchased,
giving customers a way to manage peak use without violating the
license. The licensor can charge a fee for overdrafts protection
(insurance) as well as separate fees for each overdraft license.
Advantages to licensors are flexibility, simplicity, and price
locks that give predictable costs.
Packages or bundling Packages
licenses grant rights to use a set of functionally dependent or
independent products, or bundle. Vendors define the components of the
packages or bundles in the license
agreement. Such licenses allow vendors to easily customize solutions on
a marketing, not engineering, level.
Package suitePackage
suites restrict the concurrent sharing of a package‟s component. For
example, no two users may concurrently
use MS Word and MS PowerPoint. This type of license is used by vendors
with broad product lines as a competitive price discounting strategy.
Pay-per-useLicense fees are based on actual usage. The usage counter may be based on metrics
such as CPU usage or on metrics related to the nature of the application.
Site licenseGrant
rights to all valid users at a named location; may be unlimited in
number, or up to a certain number. This is a cost-effective option for
large
customers, especially where the usage load might grow quickly or varies
greatly.
Time-limitedSuch licenses have a
specific, automatic expiration date that is not automatically renewed.
They are used to „force‟ re-negotiation of
license terms.
Upgrade dates and/or version numbersUpgrade
terms grant rights to use upgraded versions of the software. The
customer may upgrade only X number of times or the customer can only use
specific upgrade versions, or can must
upgrade within a certain time period following the release of Version
X. These terms encourage the installed base to use certain versions, so
that the licensor may withdraw, or offer special pricing for support of
other versions.
References & External links
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html