Licensing

Licensing and Copyright: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Copyright gives the creator legal ownership over their original work. Licensing is the practical tool that lets others use that work. A license is a contract or permission agreement between the creator and someone else, usually in exchange for a price. Copyright is the underlying legal right that makes licensing possible. Only the copyright owner has the authority to enter into a license agreement.

End User License Agreement (EULA)

When you purchase software, you do not actually own the software itself — you own a license to use it under specific conditions. Those conditions are spelled out in the End User License Agreement (EULA). The EULA is a legally binding document that tells you exactly what you may and may not do with the software. It covers all the clauses of a software purchase, including:

• How many copies you are allowed to install
• Whether the source code is available to you
• Whether you can modify the software
• Whether you can redistribute copies to others

What a Software License Covers

A software license is an agreement that provides legally binding guidelines for the authorised use of digital material. The digital material can be any software, or any form of art, literature, photographs, etc., in digital form. Any such resource posted on the Internet is considered intellectual property. It must be downloaded, used, or distributed only according to the guidelines given in its license agreement.

Consequences of Violating a License

Failure to follow the guidelines in a license agreement is considered an infringement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). This is a criminal offence.

Types of Licenses (Activity) …