Software License Agreements in your Business: do you have a clear picture?
Most organizations probably think they have a pretty good handle on what software license agreements they have signed up to, but closer inspection may reveal significant gaps in corporate knowledge of what software licensing terms and conditions have been agreed to and what impacts these may have on the business.
Software License Agreements can be pretty complex at the best of times – Microsoft’s are so complex they run a course on them.
But when it comes to open source software there can be a tendency to overlook the license altogether.
Many people think of a software license agreement as a document which sets out exactly what you are getting for your money when you buy a license for a piece of software. So self interest will often drive us to look a little more closely at the fine print.
But when you use a piece of software that you don’t have to pay for there is little motivation to read the detail of the agreement.
Open Source is specifically designed for ease of access – one click and your away. But although Open Source is easy to access it is someone’s intellectual property, still protected by copyright and you are still using the software under the terms of a license, which will have certain limitations and impose certain obligations on the user.
Within corporations there are generally 2 controls over the deployment of software. Firstly the IT department which may control installations and secondly the purchasing process which may require authorisation for software purchase.
Since there is no payment for open source software one of those control mechanisms does not apply – so can you really be sure that the licensing for all software running in your business has been properly scrutinized and is being adhered to?
So what are the potential implications and repercussions here? Well not a lot you may think. But think of this: say your in house developers have grabbed an open source component – without fully understanding the licensing - and integrated it into one of your line-of-business applications. Then suppose you are asked to stop using that component. Could be some nasty repercussions there I think.
Phil Odence takes the argument to another level and asks whether you know what components are used in the Commercial Software deployed within your organization. What implications will there be for you if your vendor has breached the terms of their license agreement?
As organizations show an increasing tendency to “do the right thing” in terms of software licensing, now may be the time to take a closer look at the use of open source within your organization.
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