Software Licensing
What is a software license?
- A software license grants you the legal right to use a piece of software.
- You need a license granted to you, and documented in the license agreement, for each software program you use.
- A license must be purchased for each machine the software is installed on.
What kinds of licenses are available?
- Retail (boxed software). This software can only be installed on one machine at a time, but is transferable from one machine to another.
- OEM (pre-installed software). This software is not transferable to other machines. This media can only be installed on the machine it came with.
- Volume Licenses (five or more). Allows for the installation of software on as many machines as the agreement has been purchased for.
What items do I need to keep?
- You need to keep track of what machine each license is for.
- A record of the machine serial number on which each copy of the software is installed.
- All documentation, including order confirmation, purchase receipts, license summaries/agreements, original media CD's, and bar coded materials (usually located on boxes, CD sleeves, and manuals).
