57-556: The FreeBSD Documentation License is the license that covers most of the documentation for the FreeBSD operating system . The license is very similar to the 2-clause Simplified BSD License used by the support of FreeBSD, however, it makes the applications of "source code" and "compile" less obscure in the context of documentation. It also includes an obligatory disclaimer about IEEE and Open Group manuscript in some old-fashioned sheets. The Free Software Foundation classes this as
114-430: A contract offering payment to a reader who notices the clause. As an April Fool's Day joke, Gamestation added a clause stating that users who placed an order on April 1, 2010, agreed to irrevocably give their soul to the company, which 7,500 users agreed to. Although there was a checkbox to exempt out of the "immortal soul" clause, few users checked it and thus Gamestation concluded that 88% of their users did not read
171-406: A customer agreed if they did not return the product within a specified interval. After the advent of the internet, EULAs are more often found in clickwrap format where the user only needs to click an agree button. Without the constraints of having to print the license, the length of the agreements ballooned. Another type of license, browserwrap , intuits the user's consent after they simply visit
228-404: A fee or proving a capability (or both). The requirement may also serve to keep the authorities informed on a type of activity, and to allow them to set conditions and limitations. A licensor may grant a license under intellectual property laws to authorize a use (such as copying software or using a patented invention) to a licensee, sparing the licensee from a claim of infringement brought by
285-588: A free documentation license, stating that " This is a permissive non-copyleft free documentation license that is compatible with the GNU FDL. " Based on the FreeBSD Documentation License, the BSD Documentation License was created to contain terms more generic to most projects as well as reintroducing the 3rd clause that restricts the use of documentation for endorsement purposes (as shown in
342-432: A large number of employees often negotiate the licensing agreement with the vendor. According to one study, economic competition from different software services leads to EULAs more favorable to the customer. According to United States federal law , a company can restrict the parties to which it sells but it cannot prevent a buyer from reselling the product. Software licensing agreements usually prohibit resale, enabling
399-430: A limited number of computers. The enforceability of end-user license agreements is sometimes questioned . As of 2020, there are various ways to license software with different kinds of licensing models, which allow software vendors to profit from their product offerings in flexible ways. Like other intellectual property, patent owners may grant permission to others to engage in conduct that would otherwise be within
456-404: A particular geographic region, just for a certain period of time or merely for a stage in the value chain . Moreover, there are different types of fees within the trademark and brand licensing. The first form demands a fee independent of sales and profits , the second type of license fee is dependent on the productivity of the licensee. For example, McDonald's licenses their trademark such as
513-471: A permission to a licensee to copy and distribute copyrighted works such as "art" (e.g., Thomas Kinkade 's painting Dawn in Los Gato ) and characters (e.g., Mickey Mouse ). With such license, a licensee need not fear a claim of copyright infringement brought by the copyright owner. Artistic license is, however, not related to the aforementioned license. It is a euphemism that denotes freedom of expression,
570-583: A person who holds a licentiate. In English, the degree has never been called a license. In France, the licence is the first degree awarded in Universities. In Sweden , Finland, and in some other European university systems, a 'licentiate' is a postgraduate degree between the master's degree and the doctorate. The licentiate is a popular choice in those countries where a full doctoral degree would take five or more years to achieve. A license to driving certain vehicles has been applied to many countries around
627-478: A probation officer and only living at an approved address, in exchange for their early release. If they break the conditions of the licence, they can be "recalled" (returned to prison). Offenders serving determinate sentences are released automatically at a set point in their sentence, whereas prisoners serving indeterminate sentences (e.g. life imprisonment ) can only be released by the parole board . Patent licensing has been studied in formal economic models in
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#1733085559119684-465: A provision to sell the user's soul to the company. The source code (or compiled binaries in the form of object code ) of a computer program is protected by copyright law that vests the owner with the exclusive right to copy the code. The underlying ideas or algorithms are not protected by copyright law, but are often treated as a trade secret and concealed by such methods as non-disclosure agreements . Software copyright has been recognized since
741-508: A result, players could lose access to purchased content if the vendor decides to terminate their license and withdraw the content. Most EULAs disclaim any liability for harms caused by the product, and prevent the purchaser from accessing the court system to seek a remedy. There has been substantial debate on to what extent EULAs can be considered binding. Many EULAs contain stipulations that are illegal and therefore unenforceable. Software vendors keep these unenforceable provisions in
798-406: A third party would amount to copying or infringement. Such copying would be improper and could, by using the legal system, be stopped if the intellectual property owner wanted to do so. Intellectual property licensing plays a major role in business, academia and broadcasting. Business practices such as franchising , technology transfer , publication and character merchandising entirely depend on
855-412: A website and are made aware of the terms of use . EULAs are often written in vague language, and do not inform the customer of the limitations on the agreement's enforceability. Most EULAs have been designed so that it is very difficult to read and understand them, but easy to agree to the licensing terms without reading them. Regardless of how easy it is to access, very few consumers read any part of
912-460: Is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or end-user . The practice of selling licenses to rather than copies of software predates the recognition of software copyright , which has been recognized since the 1970s in the United States. Initially, EULAs were often printed as shrink wrap contracts , where tearing the shrink wrap indicated acceptance. Software distributed via
969-409: Is lower, but has been enforced in some cases where it can be proven that the user was presented with the terms of use and continued to use the website. EULAs are primarily legal documents with IT terminology. As such, knowledge in several different domains may be necessary to produce a satisfactory translation. There have been numerous attempts to make fun of EULAs not being read. Some EULAs bury
1026-401: Is not revocable by the licensor without exposure to liability and potential damages. In the event a license is coupled with an interest, the licensor must provide reasonable time for the licensee to remove that interest from the property prior to termination. Additionally, because a license does not confer any possessory interest in the licensee, in the event of a sale of the property, the license
1083-407: Is terminated and cannot be enforced against the new owners of that property. Moreover, the death of either the licensee or licensor will terminate the agreement. If a license is revocable at will by the licensor, courts will be unable to grant specific performance in favor of the licensee. A licensee would be unsuccessful in bringing forcible entry claims or a detainer proceeding because the licensee
1140-478: The New BSD License ). An obsecure license, it is used by brlcad and peridigm. License A license ( American English ) or licence ( Commonwealth English ) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreement between those parties. In
1197-402: The " Golden Arches " or the " Big Mac ", but the licenses gives McDonald's a right to impose strict quality standards to their franchisees as they can take back the right to the trademark if they do not meet McDonald's standards. When a licensor grants permission to a licensee to not only distribute, but manufacture a patented product, it is known as licensed production . A licensor may grant
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#17330855591191254-458: The 1996 ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg in the United States, shrinkwrap licenses were not held to be binding, but since then they often have been. In some shrinkwrap cases the customer was found not to have consented to the EULA and was therefore not bound by it. Clickwrap has been found generally to be enforceable —even when the license terms are provided after the sale. The enforceability of browserwrap
1311-399: The ability to make the subject appear more engaging or attractive, by fictionalizing part of the subject. A licentiate is an academic degree that traditionally conferred the license to teach at a university or to practice a particular profession. The term survived despite the fact that nowadays a doctorate is typically needed in order to teach at a university. The term is also used for
1368-522: The agreement. During the installation of version 4 of the Advanced Query Tool the installer measured the elapsed time between the appearance and the acceptance of the end-user license agreements to calculate the average reading speed. If the agreements were accepted fast enough, a popup congratulated the users for reading several hundred words per second. South Park parodied this in the episode " HumancentiPad ", where Kyle had neglected to read
1425-612: The agreements, perhaps because users rarely resort to the legal system to challenge them. Under the New Digital Content Directive effective since 2022 in the European Union, EULAs are only enforceable to the extent that they do not breach reasonable consumer expectations. The gap between expectations and the content of EULAs is especially wide when it comes to restrictions on copying and transferring ownership of digital content. In Germany, EULAs are only valid if known to
1482-405: The case of a license issued by a government, the license is obtained by applying for it. In the case of a private party, it is by a specific agreement, usually in writing (such as a lease or other contract). The simplest definition is "A license is a promise not to sue", because a license usually either permits the licensed party to engage in an illegal activity, and subject to prosecution, without
1539-441: The company to maximize revenue. Proprietary software is usually offered under a restrictive license that bans copying and reuse and often limits the purchaser to using the software on one computer. Source code is rarely available. Derivative software works and reverse engineering are usually explicitly prohibited. The issue of reuse is particularly important in the copyright law of English-speaking countries. Many EULAs allow
1596-579: The copyright of derivative works, such as user-generated content in video games. Enforceability of EULAs has been a controversial issue and varies by jurisdiction. In the United States, it is possible to enforce a EULA that is shown to the customer after purchase, but this is not the case in Germany. European Union law only allows for enforcement of EULAs insofar as they do not breach reasonable customer expectations. There have been numerous attempts to make fun of EULAs that are not read, for example by including
1653-399: The court system. Legal scholar Anthony Michael Catton suggests that user-generated content should be considered jointly authored by the video game developers and the users. Some companies do allow video footage of their games to be distributed online, even for profit. Traditionally, software was distributed in the form of binary object code that could not be understood or modified by
1710-478: The current establishment of wealthy occupants that they decrease the supply of such occupations, which raises prices for the average consumer. Libertarians and the anti-authoritarian left ( anarcho-communists ) view competing guilds and other voluntary communes as being more beneficial for disseminating the skills and education required to perform a specified career. End-user license agreement An end-user license agreement or EULA ( / ˈ j uː l ə / )
1767-545: The customer before purchase. The United Kingdom's National Consumer Council undertook a study published in 2008 which found issues with the way 17 major IT businesses had been using EULA's and asked the Office of Fair Trading to undertake an investigation. As of 2020, the enforceability of EULAs and provisions granting copyright of all derivative works to the developer has not been judicially tested in United Kingdom. Before
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1824-403: The developer of that software. Such license is typically included in a more extensive end-user license agreement (EULA) entered into upon the installation of that software on a computer. Typically, a license is associated with a unique code, that when approved grants the end user access to the software in question. Under a typical end-user license agreement, the user may install the software on
1881-432: The field of industrial organization . In particular, Katz and Shapiro (1986) have explored the optimal licensing strategy of a research lab selling to firms who are competitors on the product market. It turns out that (compared to the welfare-maximizing solution) the licensor's incentives to develop innovations may be excessive, while the licensor's incentives to disseminate the innovation are typically too low. Subsequently,
1938-415: The field of industrial electronics). Often, patent owners will require a licensee to pay money in exchange for granting a patent license. Such payments are referred to as royalty payments and come primarily in two forms: lump sum or running royalty. A lump sum royalty involves an upfront, one-time payment, while a running royalty typically involves periodic payments ( e.g., quarterly or annual) based on
1995-448: The internet is more commonly licensed via clickwrap (where the user clicks to agree to the license) or browsewrap (continuing to browse the website indicates agreement). Most companies prefer to sell licenses rather than copies of the software because it enables them to enforce stricter terms on the end user in a number of domains, especially by prohibiting transfer of ownership or use on multiple computers, and by asserting ownership of
2052-405: The land. Once a license is agreed upon, the licensee may occupy the land only so far as is necessary to complete the act. Another key distinction between a license and a lease is that leases are generally required to be in writing, where the statute of frauds requires it, while licenses can be made orally. A license is generally created by an express or implied agreement. The licensor must agree to
2109-483: The license (e.g. fishing , driving an automobile , or operating a broadcast radio or television station ), or it permits the licensed party to do something that would violate the rights of the licensing party (e.g. make copies of a copyrighted work ), which, without the license, the licensed party could be sued, civilly, criminally, or both. In particular, a license may be issued by authorities, to allow an activity that would otherwise be forbidden. It may require paying
2166-408: The license agreement. Most assume the terms are unobjectionable or barely notice agreeing while installing the software. Companies take advantage of consumers' inattention to insert provisions into EULAs. Many assert that the purchaser is an adult and takes responsibility for minors' use of the product, to relieve the vendor of the issue of contracting with a minor and liability from minors' use of
2223-424: The license which can be shown in writing or the licensors acquiescence in its exercise. Furthermore, unlike many other contractual agreements, a license does not require consideration, a license can be created with or without it. Moreover, whether an agreement is held to be a "license" and not a lease will depend on three essential characteristics of a license: (1) a clause allowing the licensor to revoke "at will"; (2)
2280-432: The licensee is the only person or entity that is allowed to sell, make, use, offer to sell, or import the patented invention) or non-exclusive ( i.e., the licensee is simply one of several entities who has rights under the patent). Finally, any rights given under the agreement may be limited to a particular "field of use" ( e.g., a licensee may be able to practice an invention in the field of consumer electronics, but not in
2337-448: The licensing of intellectual property. Land licensing (proprietary licensing) and IP licensing. A license provides one party with the authority to act on another's land, when such action would typically amount to trespass absent that license. A key distinction between licenses and leases is that a license grants the licensee a revocable non-assignable privilege to act upon the land of the licensor, without granting any possessory interest in
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2394-457: The licensor. A license under intellectual property commonly has several components beyond the grant itself, including a term , territory , renewal provisions, and other limitations deemed vital to the licensor. Term: many licenses are valid for a particular length of time. This protects the licensor should the value of the license increase, or market conditions change. It also preserves enforceability by ensuring that no license extends beyond
2451-416: The mid-1970s and is vested in the company that makes the software, not the employees or contractors who wrote it. The tendency to license proprietary software —to sell the right of use of the software rather than a copy of the software—dates from the time period before the existence, then the scope of software copyright protection was clear . These licenses have continued in use after software copyright
2508-404: The number of patented products sold or imported. A licensor may grant permission to a licensee to distribute products under a trademark . With such a license, the licensee may use the trademark without fear of a claim of trademark infringement by the licensor. The assignment of a license often depends on specific contractual terms . The most common terms are, that a license is only applicable for
2565-493: The optimal number of licenses in a signalling model. The provision of licenses and the agencies that mandate them are often criticised by American libertarians like Milton Friedman for creating an anticompetitive environment for occupations, which creates a barrier to entry for more qualified and skilled individuals who may not have the resources to obtain the necessary licences. According to Friedman, licenses and permits have become so burdensome due to legislation that favors
2622-414: The product. EULAs, almost always offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis as a non-negotiable condition for using the software, are very far from the prototypical contract where both parties fully understand the terms and agree of their own free will. Proponents argue that the contracts streamline purchases and that savings for the company could be passed to the consumer. Enterprises buying software for
2679-464: The retention by the licensor of absolute control over the premises; and (3) the licensor's supplying to the licensee all of the essential services required for the licensee's permitted use of the premises. Under a pure licensing agreement, the licensor, under its terms and by common-law, can cancel the agreement at will and without cause, unless it is coupled with an interest or made irrevocable by contract. A license that has been coupled with an interest
2736-452: The scope of a patent. For example, a patent owner may authorize a licensee to make, use, sell, offer for sale, or import a patented product. Such agreements are typically referred to as a patent license agreement or a covenant not to sue . These agreements can last for a specific period of time (such as five years) or for the entire life of the patent ( i.e., until the patent expires). Patent license agreements may also be exclusive ( i.e.,
2793-509: The seminal work of Katz and Shapiro (1986) has been extended in several directions. For example, Bhattacharya, Glazer, and Sappington (1992) have taken into account that the firms acquiring licenses must make further investments in order to develop marketable products. Schmitz (2002, 2007) has shown that asymmetric information due to adverse selection or moral hazard may lead the research lab to sell more licenses than it would do under complete information. Antelo and Sampayo (2017) have studied
2850-504: The term of the agreement. Territory: a license may stipulate what territory the rights pertain to. For example, a license with a territory limited to "North America" (Mexico/United States/Canada) would not permit a licensee any protection from actions for use in Japan. Again, a shorthand definition of a license is "a promise by the licensor not to sue the licensee". That means without a license any use or exploitation of intellectual property by
2907-472: The terms expiration may raise breach of contract claims that could provide damages against the licensor. Furthermore, once the licensor terminates or revokes the license, notice is statutorily required prior to the commencement of any special proceeding to recover possession of the property (e.g., in NY that requirement is 10 days). Mass distributed software is used by individuals on personal computers under license from
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#17330855591192964-412: The user purchases a perpetual license, it is common for EULAs to allow unilateral termination by the vendor for any number of vague reasons or none at all. Furthermore, many EULAs allow the vendor to change the terms at any time and the customer must choose between agreeing or ceasing use of the product, without getting a refund. EULAs are also applicable to in-app purchases and microtransactions . As
3021-436: The user, but could be downloaded and run. The user bought a perpetual license to use a particular version of the software. Software as service (SaaS) vendors—who have the majority market share in application software as of 2023 —rarely offer perpetual licenses. SaaS licenses are usually temporary and charged on a pay-per-usage or subscription basis, although other revenue models such as freemium are also used. Even if
3078-429: The vendor to collect information about the user and use it in unrestricted ways. Some EULAs restrict the ability of users to exercise copyright over derivative work made using the software, such as creative creations in the virtual worlds of video games . Although most video game EULAs assert that the developer holds the copyright on any user-generated content , this is contested by users and has not been tested in
3135-416: The world. Being allowed to drive a certain vehicle requires a specific driving license, the type of license depending on the type of vehicle. In the United Kingdom prisoners serving a determinate sentence (a fixed time in prison) will be released prior to the completion of their full sentence "on licence". The licence is the prisoner's agreement to maintain certain conditions, such as periodic reporting in to
3192-403: Was never granted any possessory interest. The Licensee would also not be able to recover damages for money spent unless they are able to show detrimental reliance on the license. In certain cases, however, licenses can be made irrevocable, and specific performance may be granted. Where a license is made with a set term period and valid consideration is transferred, revocation of the license prior to
3249-416: Was recognized in the courts, and are considered to grant the company extra protection compared to copyright law. Virtually all proprietary software is not sold as a copy but rather as a license with associated EULA. Initially, end-user license agreement (EULAs) were printed on either the shrinkwrap packaging encasing the product ( shrink wrap contract ) or a piece of paper. The license often stipulated that
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