[RESOLVED] Licensing

[glug]

Hi guys

What are the procedures of licensing software?

[Kasracer]

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking for. Do you need to license your application? If so, there isn't a process of submitting a form (unless the specific license you're using requires that). It's more of a declaration that's included with your application.

Tell us what you're looking to do and we can give you some better info. Do you want your application to be open source? If so, check out the GPL or LGPL.

[jmcilhinney]

Persist the relevant information when the software is installed, then validate that information when the app runs. If you want anything half-way decent then you will either need to buy a third-party component, which can be had for not too much, or else do a reasonable amount of work. If you want to roll your own then the Framework supports licensing via XML, which you can read about on MSDN.

[Kasracer]

Persist the relevant information when the software is installed, then validate that information when the app runs. If you want anything half-way decent then you will either need to buy a third-party component, which can be had for not too much, or else do a reasonable amount of work. If you want to roll your own then the Framework supports licensing via XML, which you can read about on MSDN.

Erm, you're talking about validating the license sold to the user. I thought the op was referring to the application license.

Confusing

[jmcilhinney]

Erm, you're talking about validating the license sold to the user. I thought the op was referring to the application license.

Confusing

That's what happens when people spend all of five seconds posting a few words without thinking about what those words will actually mean to the people reading them, who have no idea what was in the poster's mind at the time. We're supposed to take the time and make the effort to volunteer our help for someone who couldn't be bothered to take the time or make the effort to post clearly what they want.

[glug]

I don't exactly know what the licenses are called other than the open source.
The software developed isn't open source and we don't want to license it open source. I'm not talking about the registration of the software to the client but the license agreement. Where can i get the agreement from or is it just some thing i have to write up. i'm sorry but i don't know what licenses there are? So i cant explain what license i need or want

[Hack]

Moved to General Developer

[jmcilhinney]

I don't exactly know what the licenses are called other than the open source.
The software developed isn't open source and we don't want to license it open source. I'm not talking about the registration of the software to the client but the license agreement. Where can i get the agreement from or is it just some thing i have to write up. i'm sorry but i don't know what licenses there are? So i cant explain what license i need or want

Well, you can do a darn sight more than you did in your first post. You just did give a ton more information than you did originally. How hard is it to say that you need to provide a license agreement for the user to agree to when installing your software and you don't know whether or where you're supposed to source it?

That said, think about the software you've installed yourself and the license agreements you seen. Were they all the same? Did they look like there was one license document that exists that every company uses? No, they were all similar but different.

It's your software. It's up to you to decide what the terms of the license agreement are to be. If you want a lawyer experienced in the field to darw one up for you then you pay a lawyer to do it. If you want to keep your money and let common sense prevail you'll look at the license agreements you have on your computer and you'll picjk and choose which parts suit you and compile your own from them. The time and money you spend preparing the licence agreement should be somewhat proportional to the time and money spent creating the software. If 100 developers spent 5 years creating the software then it's worth making sure the license agreement is iron-clad and water-tight. A little utility that you threw together yourself, maybe not so much.

[RhinoBull]

That's what happens when people spend all of five seconds posting a few words without thinking about what those words will actually mean to the people reading them, who have no idea what was in the poster's mind at the time. We're supposed to take the time and make the effort to volunteer our help for someone who couldn't be bothered to take the time or make the effort to post clearly what they want.

I couldn't agree more... So, ............. what did you mean to say again?

[Hack]

or is it just some thing i have to write up.

That is exactly what it is.....something you have to create.

Do you use MS Office products?

Do you use Visual Studio?

Do you use a database product?

All of these things have software licenses (which, typically speaking, no one ever bothers to read, but, they are there) Take one of theirs and start with that as a model for creating your own.

[Hack]

Have a look at this.

[Kasracer]

That is exactly what it is.....something you have to create.

All of these things have software licenses (which, typically speaking, no one ever bothers to read, but, they are there) Take one of theirs and start with that as a model for creating your own.

Those are End User License Agreements (EULA) and may not necessairly be what the op needs. EULAs are for the end users of applications but an application license may also be something like the GPL or BSD licenses where it dictates how an application can be distributed, shared or incorporated.

Perhaps we need a little more info from the op but at this point, regardless if we get all of his information, he's going to have to search for an existing solution or create one on his own / through a professional service.

[Hack]

Granted, but even software license have to be created by someone, and typically that someone will be the software vendor.

[glug]

thank you guys, I have all the info i need