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Software License Agreement

As defined by Wikipedia, a software license agreement is a contract between a software producer and a consumer allowing the consumer a software license.

The software license agreement indicates the terms and under which circumstances the user is allowed to use the software which is known as an end-user license agreement (EULA).

• Some end-user license agreements have shrink-wrapped software (a software licensed agreement enclosed within a software package which is only accessible after purchase) attached, either in paper format or more often electronically. This requires the end-user to either accept or reject the agreement, without reading it.
• Only by accepting the agreement and abiding to its terms and conditions, is the user allowed to install the software to his or her computer and can then read the agreement after the software has been installed.
• Most EULAs state extensive liability limitations. Should the software damage the user’s computer in any way the software licensor will receive no harm.
• There are also EULAs that hold limitations to the software licensor should the software malfunction or be damaged due to improper use by the end-user.
• Some copyright owners utilise EULAs to circumvent the limitations the copyright law places on their copyright products.

There are however software license agreements that provide more rights than most EULAs do and are called a free software license.

• A free software license allows the end-user to modify and redistribute the software for any purpose which would naturally be prohibited in the copyright law.
• There are also the cases where free software licenses are only allowed to be redistributed under ‘copyleft’ which requires the end-user to distribute the software along with the source code or any attribute given to the authorship.