[Mailinglist] Is Software Ownership the same as Licensing ?

[Sabir]

Hello .

  Extract given is taken from
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2004/OwningSoftware.asp.
A very simple explanation about proprietary licensing agreement

Is Software Ownership the Same as Licensing?

What happens when you purchase a specific software
application<http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2004/application.html>?
And if you've purchased software, what is the license agreement for? Do you
now own the software because you paid for it?*

Simply put, no. Though you may have paid for the software, what you have
actually done is licensed the application, essentially paying for the rights
to use the software according to guidelines determined by the owner. The
owner of the software remains the person or entity that holds the copyright
<http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2004/copyright.html>,
giving them the sole legal authority power to sell, distribute, copy and/or
change the content of the software. And unless the person or organization
transfers ownership rights, the rights remain with the owner no matter how
many times the owner legally distributes the software.

When a user either purchases software or freely downloads software from the
Internet, the user is not buying the ownership rights to the software but a
license to use the software according to the licensing agreement, or EULA
(for *e*nd *u*ser *l*icensing *a*greement). The EULA is a legal agreement
between the two parties and is legally actionable if either party violates
the terms of the agreement. While no two EULAs are exactly the same, a
typical EULA, whether it comes in the boxed software from your local
computer store or attached to an Internet download of an application, states
that the person or organization licensing the software is granted permission
to use the software and almost nothing else. This ensures that the software
cannot be copied and sold by anyone, nor can the fundamental programming of
the software be changed to alter the performance of the application. The
licensing agreement also protects the end user from any legal liabilities
incurred by the owner of the software's copyright. Typically, software that
can be used by both individuals and organizations have different licensing
agreements that cover different issues (e.g., the EULA for software being
distributed to an enterprise will specify how many individual workstations
the software can be deployed on).

It's a good idea to actually read all the way through the licensing
agreements of software you buy or download. One way that  spyware  has been
able to proliferate over the Internet is by individuals not paying attention
to the licensing agreements that state that along with the intended software
the program will also be installing spyware on your system.

 *It should be noted that the software referred to herein is properietary
software, not open source software, which follows its own set of rules.


-- 
With Regards,
Sabir
+91 9895365676
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