|
A software licence grants a user (or users) the legal right to use a piece of software. You need a licence before you can use any software. Copyright law prevents copying of any software product without permission from the copyright holder - including:
- Physical copies of a software program.
- Electronic copies on your computer or local network.
- Copies from the Internet.
A perpetual licence gives you the right to use the software forever, while a non-perpetual licence provides the right to use software for a fixed term. For example if your school purchases an Adobe Acrobat 6 licence this licence can be used forever for version 6 of Acrobat. Whereas if your school purchases Symantec antivirus licences, these are only valid for 12 months and need to be renewed each year.
A software licence only gives you the legal right to use a piece of software within the terms detailed by the owner of the copyright in that software. You only have a licence to use that piece of software - you don't own the copyright for the software itself.
When you purchase a licence you are only permitted to load the software the number of times stated on the licence certificate.
When a site licence is purchased is allows the End User to load the program on to all the PC's within the site addressed on the Licence Agreement.
OEM licences.
An Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is a company which manufactures or builds new computers and bundles special (non retail) Microsoft products onto their computers prior to shipment to the customer. These OEM products are pre-loaded onto computers by the manufacturer and in the case of the Windows operating system a Certificate of Authenticity sticker will be on the outside of the computers case. This sticker should not be removed as it is proof of the OEM licence. These types of licences are only available for purchasing with new PC's or certain components for a PC upgrade. The most common OEM licence purchase would be for the Windows operating system, however it is also possible to purchase other OEM products like Microsoft office.
OEM licences are not transferable to other PC's, they are only to be used on the PC that they were purchased with.
|