What is Licensing?

A Software License is a document that legally permits you for the use and distribution of software. It’s a legal right given by the company to the user to access their application. Software license states the rights of the developer and user of a piece of software. It includes how the software should be used and how much it will be paid for. It also includes some terms and conditions which are basically fair use of the software, the limitations of liability, disclaimers, and warranty. A license can also be termed as an agreement between the user and the organization. The user must be agreed to the terms of the license while acquiring the software. Every paid software comes with a license key or product key, which is used to identify and verify the specific version of the software and is also used to activate the product.

Working of license: When a new user buys software or install it will normally accept an end-user license agreement (EULA) which comprises the legal definition between the licensor and the licensee. EULA is an agreement that allows users for installing and using the software. Every EULA has a provision that specifies when the term of the agreement is activated by the end-user. This might happen when the user opens the product for example when the user agrees to the EULA’s terms of the condition by clicking on the accepting terms and conditions. For cloud-based applications such as software as a service (SaaS) includes the following details: 

• Charges per user on a monthly or annual basis.
• The duration of the agreement.
• Terms of agreements termination.

Another example of software licensing is when a software creator or corporation offers permission to sell or distribute software under another party’s brand. Although the creator retains ownership, the rebranding firm is allowed to resell the program. “White labeling” is the term for this type of license.

Importance of license: The intellectual property of the software business and the end-user are both protected by software licensing. Someone may, for example, buy the program, reverse engineer it, and sell a clone of it. The software firm loses money, and the end-user gets an unauthorized copy of the product, which might cause performance problems and cybersecurity risks. If an end-user breaks the conditions of the software license agreement, they may lose their ability to use the product or face a fee. Individuals and organizations should read and thoroughly comprehend the software licensing terms in order to assure compliance

Types of Licenses  

Software licenses can be classified as:

• Proprietary
• Free and Open source

Now let us discuss them one by one in detail:

1. Proprietary License: It consists of software that is licensed by the copyright holder under some given conditions. The software can be used by the users but they will not have the authority to modify it. It is also termed as the closed source license as the original source code of the software is not accessible, which means you cannot see the actual code written by the programmers. This is done for a purpose so that code should not be leaked.

Proprietary Licensed software doesn’t mean that you have to pay for all of this software. Some of the proprietary licensed software is free to use but still, you can’t access the actual code. Windows, MAC, and even MS Office are proprietary licensed software.

2. Free and Open Source: As the name suggests Free and Open Sourced licensed software in which source code is released. Users can have a look at how the software was made, which language was used to build the software. This type of license authorizes the user to modify the software and share the modified version.

Open-source software is generally developed in a synergetic manner where a community of developers is made which develops the software and where user can share their ideas on the enhancement and improvement of the application or program.

Free and Open Source licenses are classified as:

• Permissive License: Permissive License is an open-source license or a free software license with the minutest restrictions. It allows the use, distribution, modification, and selling of the software without source code. Eg: Apache, etc.
• Copyleft License: Copyleft License allows the distribution and modification of the software unless the same rights are preserved. It allows modification and distribution of the software with source code. Eg: Creative Commons License, GPL(General Public License).

For example, apache is a permissive free and open source license. The author of apache is Apache software foundation(ASF). As a permissive free and open source license it allows the user to perform any kind of task on the software. User is allowed to modify, distribute, and even distribution of modified versions under the terms of the license. In the redistribution of software with any apache license, you must include a copy of the license and a modification notice must be added to each file which being modified. Apache license provides the worldwide authority of rights which means rights are granted to all the countries. Apache provides rights for no fee or royalty which means rights are not chargeable.

Some other types of license are:

1. GPL (General Public License): GPL stands for General Public License which allows users to freely use, modify, and redistribute the software without any charges or restriction. If the software is licensed under GPL it is free. However “free” here doesn’t mean about charging or buying software, the software can also be paid for. Free here replicates freedom. Freedom to perform anything on the software i.e. modification, redistribution, etc. Features of GPL are listed below:

• Right to download and use the software.
• Allowed to modify the software.
• Allowed to redistribute the software.
• Even allowed to modify and distribute the modified software.

2. CCL(Creative Commons License): CCL stands for Creative Commons License. It is a public license and this license is given by the copyright owner to allow people to use their work in any way consistent with that license. It is the standard form license agreement that can be attached to work to enable its use without contacting the author or negotiating terms of use. It has four basic parts:

• Accreditation: The author of the work must be acknowledged himself as the creator then his/her work is available for modification, distribution, copying, and use.
• Shared with CC: The work can only be modified or distributed under this license.
• Non-Commercial: For non-commercial purposes, the work can also be modified and distributed.
• No Derivative Work: You are allowed to copy and distribute the CC-licensed work but you are not allowed to create work based on origin.