Software license
A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software.
Description
Under United States copyright law all software is copyright protected, except material in the public domain.
A typical software license grants an end-user permission to use one or more copies of software in ways where such a use would otherwise potentially constitute copyright infringement of the software owner's exclusive rights under copyright law.
Liability and responsibility
In addition to granting rights and imposing restrictions on the use of software, software licenses typically contain provisions which allocate liability and responsibility between the parties entering into the license agreement. In enterprise and commercial software transactions these terms often include limitations of liability, warranties and warranty disclaimers, and indemnity if the software infringes intellectual property rights of others.
Categories
Software licenses can generally be fit into the following categories:
- Proprietary licenses
- Free software
- Open source software
The significant feature that distinguishes them are the terms under which the end-user may further distribute or copy the software.
See also
External links
- Software license @ Wikipedia
