Software Licensing
What is a Software License
A software license is a legal document of giving permission to end-users to use or redistribute the software. A Software license can contain who can use it, license duration, the number of installations, which can be modified by the user.
Why people should use licensed software
Because it is against the law. Going against copyright laws can bring danger to individuals or businesses. Licensed software doesn’t mean that users have to pay for it. There are free licensed software also.
By using the right software license can save money, time. Usual software comes with a single-user license. If you want to buy the software to use across multiple devices you need to but a multi-user license.
Using licensed software, users can gain benefits, technical supports from the manufacturer. It is more reliable and safe.
Types of Software Licenses
There are two major types of software licenses.
- Open Source Software License
- Proprietary Software License
Open Source Software Licenses
Softwares that have exposed their source code to the public can gain open source software licenses.
1.Public Domain License
Software licensed with public domain licenses can use or modify by anyone without any restrictions. There is no ownership such as copyright, trademark, or patent. This software can be modified, distributed, or sold.
2. Permissive License
Permissive software licenses are free software licenses with minimum restrictions on how the software can be used, distributed, or modified.
Ex:- MIT, BSD, Apple Public Source License, Apache
3. GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
This software license allows developers to integrate software components released under LGPL into their software without additional requirements.
4. Copyleft License
This license allows developers to modify the code and distribute the new version under the same software license.
Ex:- GPL
Proprietary Software License
Commercial software in which source code is not available for the public can gain proprietary software licenses. So developers have legal protection to protect their investments on software development. Proprietary software doesn’t mean users have to pay for it always. There are free proprietary software also available.
