Software Licenses

What is a Software License?

When we trying to install software to computer, we can notice a window like above, asking agree to End user License agreement also known as EULA. We must agree to that EULA and if we didn’t agree to it, we can’t install that software.

A software license can be defined as a document that provides legally binding guidelines for the use and distribution of software that is shared between software vendor and a business or IT organization that wishes to use their software products. It includes rules, requirements, and guidelines for both parties.

When an organization purchase software licenses, that implies they are legally bound by the terms of the software license. There are several type of software licenses. Next let’s discuss about currently available software licenses.

Public Domain License

Public Domain License allows users to freely share, modify, distribute, commercialize, and re-license software in the public domain with almost no limitations. modified or distributed

Permissive

These license also similar to public domain license but it has some limitations which define how user can modified or distributed.

The best examples of this category are the Apache License, the BSD License, and the MIT License.

LGPL

The Free Software Foundation also created the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). This type of software licensing enables the end-user to modify the program and incorporate the modified version into a proprietary software product that they can license on their own terms.

Developers have rights to link to open source libraries within their own software. Resulting code can be licensed under any other type of license — even proprietary — when projects are compiled or linked to include an LGPL-licensed library.The caveat is that if any part of the library is copied into the code or modified, the terms of the original LGPL license will apply to the developed code that used the library

Copyleft

Copyleft licenses are also referred to as reciprocal or restrictive licenses. They are generally less commercially friendly than other licenses. The General Public License (GPL) family of licenses is the most well-known and widely used. These licenses allow developers to modify the licensed code, incorporate it with proprietary code, and distribute new works based on it as long as the source code for any new works or adaptations is distributed under the same software license.

Proprietary

These are the most restrictive of all types of software licenses. Such licenses are typically used for commercial software where the copyright holder asserts express conditions regarding the rights granted, such as not allowing the code to be shared, reverse-engineered, modified, redistributed, or sold.

What does a software license agreement include?

• Permissions and constraints for distribution
• User permissions for copying and modifying software
• The agreement’s duration
• Transferability of the license to another company or individual
• When the terms of the agreement take effect

Importance of Software Licenses

Software licenses are essential for both software providers and users for a variety of reasons.

The license formalizes the relationship between the rights holder and the licensee.

The goal is to clarify the relationship from a technical and legal standpoint so that there are no surprises or uncertainty about responsibilities while the agreement is in effect.