Hot answers tagged license
17
If your client is willing to pay for it, you escrow your code with a neutral third party. There are many firms that will provide this escrow service. You write a contact that specifies exactly when and how the source code will be released from escrow.
You basically place your software package's source code with a neutral third party. This party will release ...
7
There are a few ways you can do this. I'll talk about 2.
Method 1: Buy a professional license management product
I'm the founder of the company that makes LimeLM, which can be best described as hassle-free licensing & online activation. You can associate customer data directly with the licenses. For instance, for a particular product key you can add ...
5
We have been doing this with our engineering software (costing >$30K/user) for a long time now but with mixed success. We learned several things in the process:
It's not enough to give the universities software for free. You have to treat them like real customers and work on making the successful. This may include support, training, everything you would ...
5
The open source version of Magneto is licensed under the Open Software Licence. I'm not familiar with the OSL but it is a "copyleft" licence similar to the GPL (or, according to Wikipedia, more like the LGPL).
The basic premise behind copyleft licences is that source code should be provided to anybody who receives the software. However, just because ...
4
You do have to fulfill CPA supervised general accounting experience requirements before you can sit for the exam. The California Board of Accountancy website and this booklet will answer many of your questions.
Relationships and contacts are really important in this field so I would recommend a brick and mortar school rather than an online pursuit. I don't ...
4
Windows OS license is definitely per instance - at best that's per machine, but usually it's per VM on each machine. If the OS was acquired from an OEM vendor then it's usually locked to that piece of hardware and can't be ported to another computer if the first dies. This often isn't enforced in the license key itself, but is in the agreements.
Typically ...
4
That's actually a hard question to answer, because much of this isn't really tested in the courts -- and on top of that the national differences in laws make a truly international approach very hard.
First up, the GPL version 2 (the license used by MySQL and many others). In the olden days the common interpretation of the GPL was that you were bound by it ...
4
I have used all of the following apps in the past while working with different companies as a freelancer. Never had a problem with anyone. You should check them out.
Product Key Manager - Still in Beta
LM-X License Manager - Easy to use with great functionality
Limax - Great for small apps
I hope that it was helpful.
4
Go for B, 3 big advantages,
1) You'll make more money with the same number of clients (although you can argue that B can decrease number of sales)
2) Support will be much easier because everyone will have the same version
3) Since everyone got the latest version your customers experience will be much better (means they won't get annoyed by already fixed ...
4
If all else were equal and you chose A, would you support older, major versions, e.g., would you provide a 2.0.1 and a 3.0.1 together to address a problem that exists in both? If not, then the primary difference between the two is that A gives you opaque, flexible control over when to raise funds from you existing user base and how much you want to raise ...
4
Other people have addressed these from the vendor perspective; I'll tackle it from the buyer's side.
A lot of the consumer-level software I use is "pay an upgrade fee on a major new version", including Microsoft Office. I rarely buy the upgrade immediately, and sometimes never do. That's because the older version often works fine for me, the benefits of the ...
3
As an attorney working with startups in many countries for the past fifteen years, I can give you the firm answer of: That depends. Technically, it can't hurt to have one up front. Find someone who is willing to not charge your for every clarifying point, a ten minute call (unless it's ten minutes every day) and actually is working with you - be fair about ...
3
No, you need to worry about the important legal stuff before you start your business!
Many states, cities, or townships require a business license. If you don't have this you are breaking the law, even if you never make a sale.
Some localities have very strict rules on home businesses. You may be legally prohibited from running any business from you home. ...
3
Your customer wants to ensure that they will be able to continue their business, even if you are no longer reachable. This is quite common, but its usually done using source code escrow. In source code escrow, a third party holds the source code and releases it if certain events happen. This service may be expensive, so usually after its agreed upon, nobody ...
3
Key thing you missed for the agreement.
They shouldn't be allowed to sell their new version of your code as an independant component, only within a larger project as a "building block". Otherwise, if I'm a component vendor, I can resell your stuff by changing a few property names and fixing a bug ... personally I don't think thats shouldn't be part of the ...
3
Assuming that you do not infringe or misappropriate any of the other company's intellectual property, I have a difficult time imagining that you will have done anything wrong by converting or interpreting scripts in the other company's language.
Disclaimer: This information does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client ...
2
I agree with @gmagana, except I'm a proponent of transparency in everything a software/site does. If you're going to watermark it, make it known. I think if nothing else it should be in your "Terms of Use" type agreement that you should have them reading and agreeing too as a part of signing up for your site.
2
A "right"? You can make your software do whatever you want... It's not illegal to watermark anything your users put through your software.
Now if users will accept it, that's a whole other question. Also up to your discretion is if you tell your users that you are watermarking exported content.
2
Giving away software is a mixed bag, and you have to decide where you should give it and where you should discount it. For example, your local animal shelter is severely understaffed and underfunded, so giving them the software is fine. Princeton, while technically a non-profit, has a truly ridiculous amount of money, so discounts for them. One rule of thumb ...
2
In general, it's a good idea to discount products and services to non-profits as a way to build goodwill and a potential user base. Plenty of software companies do this for Universities so that they get students used to the software for future sales.
Don't demand anything. That just makes it seem unauthentic. You should really want to help the non-profit ...
2
As @Jonas says you will need to get a lawyer, and it is well worth doing so, to work with you to determine what clauses you need in your license and to make sure you are properly protected.
After spending a lot of years evolving our license agreements I would offer some big-picture guidance:
Don't just start with a huge legal boilerplate that you don't ...
2
I am not a lawyer (IANAL), but I believe you should review the end-user license agreement (EULA) for each piece of software to determine if this is allowed. Google 'Microsoft Windows EULA' if you don't have your Windows installation disc/box on hand.
While I have certainly seen software applications that allow what you are looking to achieve (single user ...
2
An EIN is an Employer Identification Number issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It is also called a Tax ID. See http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98350,00.html
It is not a "Seller License" and I am not aware of a license required to sell. Some items are restricted from export and if one is importing/exporting there are documents ...
2
I am a lawyer, but not an IP lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt, but I would NOT show the game or even indicate that you've developed it already. I'd just make the contact and say something like "would you be interested in licensing IP rights?" The less you say about what you've done the better.
My two cents is that if you show your version of the ...
2
I'm founder of the company that makes LimeLM, a hassle free licensing and online activation system. That is, LimeLM is hardware locked licensing that integrates with all programming languages (.NET, Java, C++, etc., etc.) and allows for advanced functionality like recurring billing for desktop apps (like you're looking for) among other things. There are lots ...
2
At this point, I think it's difficult to provide you with a "sure answer".
It used to be common understanding that you cannot distribute a product containing GPL software without GPL-licensing the product itself.
In recent years, I have seen so many interpretations and counter-interpretations (what's distribution? is there a difference between ...
2
Do you want to distribute the product? If yes, do you want to bundle MySQL? Then the GPL isn't too clear about that point. Is it now statically linking or not? I guess no one really knows the answer to that.
If, however, you don't bundle it with your product and the user has to download it themselves, you should be fine, even with the GPL, since you are not ...
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