Software Licenses

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