How To Create A License For Software

by eclewis | Dec 29, 2021 | Business News, Software Licensing

How To Create A License For Software

by eclewis | Dec 29, 2021 | Business News, Software Licensing

Protecting the software company and the end-user is one of the many benefits of software licensing. Large and small companies alike are vulnerable. Unknowingly, organizations and individuals often utilize unlicensed software. Using unlicensed software is against the law and may result in a loss of time and money. Additionally, it might have a detrimental effect on production and efficiency. In this article, we will highlight the importance of software licensing and how to create a license for software.

Software Licenses

A software license is a legally binding agreement that outlines the terms and conditions for the use and distribution of software. Typically, software licenses allow end-users to make one or more copies of the program without breaking copyright laws. Additionally, the licensing agreement describes the parties’ obligations to the agreement and may place limits on how the program may be used. Software licensing terms and conditions often contain provisions governing fair use of the software, liability restrictions, warranties, and disclaimers. Additionally, they define safeguards in the event that the program or its usage violates the intellectual property rights of others. There are two distinct kinds of software licenses, each of which is treated differently under copyright law.

Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS)

The term “open source” is often used to refer to licensing for free and open-source software (FOSS). Along with the software product, the buyer receives the FOSS source code, and generally, the client is permitted to modify the program using the source code.

Proprietary License

Closed source is often used to refer to proprietary licensing. They supply operating codes to consumers, and users are not permitted to change this program in any way. Additionally, these agreements often prohibit reverse-engineering the software’s code in order to access the source code. With software becoming increasingly more prevalent in our daily lives, we must become familiar with key aspects such as software licensing. Despite the fact that software licensing might seem to be a complicated concept, consumers should make an effort to understand the ins and outs of it in order to improve software innovation.

Why Is Knowing How To Create A License For A Software Important?

Having a software license in place protects all individuals involved from the creating of software to the end-user. For example, someone may acquire the software, reverse engineer it, and then offer their own version. The software provider loses income, and the end-user obtains an unauthorized copy of the product, resulting in performance difficulties and cybersecurity concerns. If the end-user breaches the conditions of the software license agreement, they risk losing access to the product or facing a fee. Individuals and organizations should read and comprehend the software licensing terms in their entirety.

The Importance of Hiring An Experienced Software Licensing Attorney

Deal Negotiation

Hiring a lawyer to represent you who is experienced in how to create a license for a software gives you the option to negotiate a better bargain than the one given at the time of the license’s first offer. Negotiating a stronger license agreement is critical because it will help your firm save money over time. For instance, your lawyer may be able to reduce the cost of licensing or increase the number of software licenses you may keep. Additionally, your lawyer may be able to negotiate a longer license term for your firm, ensuring that you will not need to renew it in the near future.

Usage Rights

One of the most fundamental reasons to consult a lawyer when licensing new software for your business is to ensure that you fully understand your usage rights and obligations. If the tiny print of your license is not fully understood, you risk unknowingly violating it and losing your right to use the program you need. Fortunately, you can rely on your attorney to walk you through the whole licensing agreement line by line, ensuring that you thoroughly grasp each point and how the usage rights and laws will affect your capacity to use your new software in the future years, if at all. And, after everything is said and done, you’ll be able to avoid doing any activities, such as installing the program on unauthorized machines that would constitute a violation of your licensing contract.

Easy Deactivation

Suppose your company determines that it no longer requires the software you’re licensing. In that case, your lawyer can advise you on whether you may lawfully deactivate your license by providing notice or if you’ll be required to pay the penalty to exit the license early. Alternatively, if you want to transfer your software license to a new computer system, your lawyer may assist you with deactivating the license for the previous system, transferring the program to the new system, and then activating fresh licensing for it in a legal and smooth manner. Additionally, your attorney will assist you in ensuring that any actions or costs required to transfer your license to a new computer system are completed in a timely way, so you do not have to deal with a gap in your licensing.

Need An Attorney to Create a License for Software?

Elizabeth Lewis is an experienced software licensing attorney in Denver. If you have questions about how to create a license for a software, Contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis today!

The Importance of Software Compliance

by eclewis | Nov 29, 2018 | Software Licensing

The Importance of Software Compliance

by eclewis | Nov 29, 2018 | Software Licensing

Your growing business needs more support, so you hire a new employee. You have carved out a work space and purchased another computer for her. She is able to start right away since you found an old Microsoft Office disc (which you previously installed on another employee’s system). Then, several weeks down the road, your new hire is just not working out and has to be let go. Next thing you know, you are summoned to court and ordered to pay thousands in fines for software license infringement. This nightmare scenario happens more often than you think, and there are enforcement programs and companies who will pay handsome sums to whistle-blowers like your disgruntled ex-employee. According to an Inc.com article, Microsoft Office is the most common software used in business today. No matter how small your business, you are required to have the correct license for each device running the MS Office Suite and in the correct version. A small business attorney will help you with all of your software licensing issues, including your own intellectual property that should be protected.

Microsoft, like other large technology companies, has been aggressively reconciling software licenses through audits in an effort to reduce piracy and abuse. They tally up users and licenses for their products, including Windows, Office, and Windows Server. If you are not in compliance, you will be faced with costly fees – “true-ups” – to update your software licensing. And, the more out of compliance your business is, the more costly the fines. Here are five helpful points to keep small businesses compliant with big corporations like Microsoft.

Small Business Compliance is Very Important

Companies, like yours, in the small business category tend to grow very rapidly. Say you begin with an operation of 20 employees/20 computers. As you grow and add more users, you should purchase more licenses, something many people neglect to do. Five years down the road, you could be several licenses behind, resulting in thousands of dollars in true-up fees. Your small business attorney will make sure you stay current and compliant with your software licenses.

Audits are Fear-Instilling and Time-Consuming

There are plenty of things you should or would rather be doing than scouring your receipts and serial numbers. Keeping good records, understanding your agreements, and knowing what is being used by all of your employees will give you peace of mind and drastically reduce your stress level in the event of a software audit. You can create a compliance checklist with your attorney.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Licenses are Different Than Open Licenses

Software licensing can be a confusing combination of technology and legal jargon. An OEM license applies to one specific piece of equipment, and even if an OEM license key is printed on the side of a piece of hardware, it cannot be used on another machine. However, an open source license can be used on any piece of equipment.

Volume License Keys (VLK) Have Limits

If you choose to buy a license using a VLK – e.g. 75 versions of MS Office for a multi-activation key – once you reach the agreed upon limit, the license is no longer usable. Each time you activate the key, it will decrease by one.

Compliance Matters to Businesses, Big and Small

Running genuine software not only renders your equipment faster and more secure and reliable, but it will also keep your small business out of trouble with big tech companies. Software compliance is just as important as protecting your proprietary software from being stolen by others. You can register easily and quickly with the United States Copyright Office.

If you need help with software licensing, contact me, Elizabeth Lewis, at the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Business Attorney. Phone: 720-258-6647. Email: elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com

Contact Us Today

Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C.
Your Denver Business Attorney

LICENSED IN COLORADO AND NORTH CAROLINA

Mailing Address:

501 S. Cherry Street, Suite 1100
Denver, CO 80246
720-258-6647
Elizabeth.Lewis@eclewis.com

Online at:

Real Estate Services for Business Owners

Elizabeth Lewis provides the following real estate law services to small and medium sized business owners in Denver and throughout Colorado:

Commercial real estate purchases
Legal review of commercial real estate leases
Protecting your assets

Protect Your Business’s IP With Software Licenses

by eclewis | Oct 11, 2017 | Software Licensing

Protect Your Business’s IP With Software Licenses

by eclewis | Oct 11, 2017 | Software Licensing

Your intellectual property (IP) can be protected by copyrights, trademarks, patents, and licenses.
You may have a product or service that calls for more than one of these IP rights. A software license is a legal instrument that governs the use or redistribution of software. These contracts transfer IP rights from the owner (licensor) to another party who wants to use them (licensee). They can be exclusive – allowing only one licensee – or nonexclusive – granting rights to multiple users. Besides protecting your business’s assets, licenses can generate significant revenue. If you have a product, website, application, or idea that needs to be licensed, Denver Small Business Attorney E.C. Lewis, P.C. will work with you to protect your intellectual property. This post will cover some basics of software licensing.

Before Choosing Your Software License
Ways to License Your Software
Generating Revenue with a Software License

1. Before Choosing Your Software License

If you make your own software program or application, you likely want as many people to use it as possible – legally, that is. But, how do you decipher the billions of pages of information and laws about software copyrights, end-user license agreements (EULAs), other types of licenses, and so on? How do you know for sure what happens and how protected you are once your product is released? These are among the many major considerations, such as who holds the rights to your work, who gets to use it, how much access do they have to your design/code, and what type of license is best for your product. The last thing you want is to set yourself up for trouble. Simple protective measures regarding copyrights and licensing will go a long way, like going more restrictive than liberal in your terms from the start. As a developer, you may have some notion of how you would like the launch of your program or application to play out. The advice of a small business attorney with extensive experience in the information technology sector will help secure your IP and potential profits.

2. Ways to License Your Software

EULAs bind the end-user (licensee) with a valid contract and grant rights to use the software with terms and conditions. Some of these include limitation of liability of the licensor, disclaimer of warranties, choice of applicable law to the contractual relationship, venue for possible disputes, etc. Open-source licenses, like Apache 2.0, GPL, and LGPL, can be viewed as ready-made universal EULA formats. The open-source community is growing with more developers publishing their code online. Here are a few types of licenses.

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) License is an open-source license that allows the user to do as they wish with the software/code as long as they give you proper credit or attribution. You are not held liable if issues arise from the software.
Apache License 2.0 is similar to the MIT License, but the end-user cannot use any of the work under your trademark. This gives you patent protection.
GPL (General Public License), known as a viral license, is widely used. With this license, anyone can use, distribute, and modify the software. The Lesser GPL (LGPL) is a less viral type, permitting the use of a library in proprietary programs and protecting your code under similar rules to GPL. It does not force any code outside of your own to be released under the same license.
Artistic License 2.0 enables users to copy and distribute copies of the software, but changes are not allowed.
EPL (Eclipse Public License) allows people to use, modify, copy, and distribute the code and modified versions for free. With an EPL license, anyone distributing the work must grant every recipient a license to any patents that cover the modifications they have made.
BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) Licenses are a series of licenses which have varying clauses. The Simplified BSD license and the New BSD license are two GPL compliant licenses. These licenses impose the minimal restrictions on the redistribution of covered software.

These are only a few of the major software licenses out there. Your small business attorney can go over all of the different levels of complexity, restrictions, and benefits among them to determine what is right for you.

3. Generating Revenue with a Software License

When it comes to protecting your IP, software is one of the most licensable. The key to the successfully commercializing your software is to choose the right license in order to generate revenue without giving up rights. Partnering licensing is a way to gain additional support, recognition, or marketing channels. A co-brand license can lend credibility and quickly raise awareness, leading to broader sales. Another partnering strategy is to license out rights to market and distribute your product. This could enable you to enter into global markets you would otherwise not reach. A third example is non-competing field, which is a good alternative if you do not intend to enter certain markets. In this case, you could partner with a larger, established software developer of another product and bundle yours with it. Whichever way you decide to go, it is essential to register with the U.S. Copyright Office. This reinforces your rights, especially if you find yourself in litigation. A small business attorney will be there with you if you ever have to take someone to court.

Contact Us Today

Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C.
Your Denver Business Attorney

LICENSED IN COLORADO AND NORTH CAROLINA

Mailing Address:

501 S. Cherry Street, Suite 1100
Denver, CO 80246
720-258-6647
Elizabeth.Lewis@eclewis.com

Online at:

Real Estate Services for Business Owners

Elizabeth Lewis provides the following real estate law services to small and medium sized business owners in Denver and throughout Colorado:

Commercial real estate purchases
Legal review of commercial real estate leases
Protecting your assets

How To Stay Software Compliant And Avoid Big Trouble

by eclewis | Aug 31, 2017 | Business News, Contract Law, IP Law

How To Stay Software Compliant And Avoid Big Trouble

by eclewis | Aug 31, 2017 | Business News, Contract Law, IP Law

Your small business may not operate on a national or global level, but as a software user on any level, you are subject to licensing agreement laws. The unauthorized use or distribution of copyrighted software is more common than you think. Not thinking about it will also lead to legal trouble, like the $3 million penalty the City of Denver recently paid to Oracle. Examples of misuse include sharing, downloading, selling, or installing multiple copies of licensed software. Other examples are installing a piece of software more times than the license permits and sharing software license codes, activation keys, or user IDs and passwords for web-based software applications. It is equally as important to protect your business’s intellectual property as it is to protect it from threatening audits or penalties. A small business attorney will help keep you compliant and protected. This post will discuss:

Different types of software licenses,
Impact and consequences of unlicensed software, and
Precautions concerning software and license choices every small business should take.

1. Staying Legal With Software Licenses

According to Wikipedia, a software license is a legal contract that governs the use or redistribution of software. All software is copyright protected, and a license grants the licensee/end-user specific permission to use one or more copies of the software. One exception is public domain software, where the software has been put into the public domain for anyone to use. Another exception to typical proprietary software is open source. Open source software is under copyright, but this type of license grants users the right to modify, reuse, and share the product while protecting the copyright holders from legal liability. One of the most popular of these licenses is a GNU General Public License, which takes measures to ensure that your software stays open source even if modified or redistributed. Other open source licenses include GNU Lesser General Public License, Apache License, MIT License, and BSD License. There are varying levels of complexity and restrictions among the different open source licenses each with their own benefits. A small business lawyer will help you determine what type of software and licenses are right for your business.

2. Impact And Consequences Of Failure To Comply With Software Licensing Laws

Software licensing or compliance audits are conducted to improve software distribution and to avoid or determine copyright infringement. Not only can an infringement result in your software being disabled, but it can lead to civil as well as criminal penalties. Unlicensed software also exposes businesses and consumers to security threats, like malware, ransomware, spyware, and viruses. A CBS Denver news story reveals that, as a result of the city’s violation of licensing agreements with Oracle, Denver taxpayers will pay millions of dollars more in 2017. The article states that Oracle threatened a $10 million penalty but settled for $3 million. Chief Information Officer for Denver Technology Services Scott Cardenas did not say how the city became out of compliance, only that the city has entered a new five-year contract with Oracle that is a “true-up” or balancing of its licensing with Oracle. A Forbes article indicates that companies, like Oracle, are giving more audit and breach notices, leaving businesses prone to losing their software programs and much more. It is easier than ever to fall out of compliance with the changing nature of software products and evolution of IT infrastructure. Your small business attorney will ensure your business stays compliant in order to avoid costly fines or loss of your current database.

3. Precautions When Considering Your Software And License Choices

Small businesses can learn valuable lessons from big entities and their mistakes or misfortunes with software licensing compliance. There are numerous precautions you should take to keep your small business out of big trouble. It is essential to find the right software and license fit for your company. Once you have done this, follow a checklist as it applies to your business.

Keep an organized record of purchase orders, contracts, paid invoices, retail and other receipts for purchase, and original license certificates;
Audit software installed on any desktop, portable, virtual computer, server, or personal computer/device used for company purposes;
Compare and match software product names, version numbers, and types of licenses;
Establish a company policy regarding software usage; and
Monitor ongoing usage.

A small business attorney will ensure you have taken the necessary precautions and represent you in the event of a software licensing violation.

If you need help with software compliance or your small business contact me, Elizabeth Lewis, at the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Business Attorney. Phone: 720-258-6647. Email: elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com

Contact Us Today

Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C.
Your Denver Business Attorney

LICENSED IN COLORADO AND NORTH CAROLINA

Mailing Address:

501 S. Cherry Street, Suite 1100
Denver, CO 80246
720-258-6647
Elizabeth.Lewis@eclewis.com

Online at:

Real Estate Services for Business Owners

Elizabeth Lewis provides the following real estate law services to small and medium sized business owners in Denver and throughout Colorado:

Commercial real estate purchases
Legal review of commercial real estate leases
Protecting your assets

GNU Lesser GPL and Apache Software Licenses

by eclewis | Oct 15, 2014 | IP Law

We’ve already discussed the most popular open source software license, the GNU General Public License (GPL), as part of our series on open source software licenses, but this time we will review a common variation of the GPL known as the Lesser GPL and the Apache License.

As a reminder, open source software licenses generally allows users to make use of, change, and share the software with others without limitation, while also providing the complete source code to the user.

The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)

The LGPL is essentially the same as the GPL and it will keep the LGPL licensed software free, but there is one critical distinction. It allows users of the LGPL software to combine it with other software, whether it is free or proprietary. This is done in a relatively simple fashion by taking the original GPL and adding permissions to it (this is done by removing section 3 of the GPL and replacing it with the LGPL language).

If you want to permit your software to be combined with proprietary software, use the LGPL, if you want to restrict it to being combined with freely distributable software, go with the GPL. To release software under the LGPL, simply add “Lesser” before “General” in all three places found in the instructions to the GPL, and include the text of the LGPL in addition to that of the GPL with the software and source code.

Apache License

Apache is another popular open source software license that is used for the Apache Web Server software, which is and has been the most popular web server on the internet since 1996. It is also the license used by Google for the Android mobile operating system.

The Apache License is different from the GPL in that it does not use any “copyleft,” meaning it does not require modifications or derivative works of the software to also be licensed under the same terms as the original software. You are also not required to provide the source code when you distribute the software to others.

Like the GPL and LGPL, the Apache license disclaims warranties, protect you from liability and others patenting your work, and requires them to give you credit in their future works, as well as note any modifications to it. Therefore, if you are not interested in “copyleft” limitations, the Apache license may make sense for you.

This is the language you use to apply the Apache License to your software, which includes a link to the full language:

Copyright YEAR NAME OF COPYRIGHT OWNER

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”);

you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software

distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS,

WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.

See the License for the specific language governing permissions and

limitations under the License.

Need An Attorney to Create a License for Software?

Elizabeth Lewis is an experienced software licensing attorney in Denver. If you have questions about how to create a license for a software, Contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis today!