E0 257 - Software Architecture Y. Narahari Department of Computer Science and Automation Indian Institute of Science Bangalore - 560 012 INDIA

Software Licensing, Kiran Rajaratna

The purpose of copyright and patents is to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. Without some incentive few would bother to create new works. After this time it is put under the public domain for the general good of the society. Software is distributed by a mechanism called Licensing. When you buy software, you don't own anything other than limited rights to use it. Licensing establishes a few things:

• Who owns the software
• What you can do with the software (alter it, install it, redistribute it)
• What is required of you (redistributing the license with the software, redistributing the source code with the software)

Violation of the Licensing agreement amounts to infringement of copyright. Infringement of copyright is a cognizable offence (Law. Able to be tried before a particular court) and will be liable for Statutory Damages.

Licensing is a nasty subject, fraught with large amounts of confusing legal-speak, but it's important to plan around licensing pitfalls. After you've established what your needs are, examine the licenses of different software that fits the bill for the tasks you have defined, and choose a license that you can agree with. It's important to recognize that choosing software is harder than just finding what works or looks pretty on the screen. The licenses we normally click through have some legal ramifications, and that we'd all be a lot better off if we only used software with licenses we can live with.

Microsoft licensing is strict, and they intend to enforce it, even against the little guys of the world. Every other free license will probably be fine for your daily use, provided you aren't a developer. If you're a developer, you owe it to yourself to read every license and become acquainted with the differences between them. A common misconception is that much free software is public-domain.

I think licensing is essential knowledge for everyone who use/develop software. I would really appreciate if someone else can volunteer to write a brief summary on the comparison of different licenses. You can find some info on comparison of license here.

Also see this.

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