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ISO-19770-3 Standard Will Make Software Licensing Compliance Easier for Customers

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor

The ISO/IEC (News - Alert) 19770-3 is a standard that will make it easier to ensure software licensing is in compliance.

A Flexera Software blog post by John Tomeny, convener of ISO/IEC 19770-3 Development Group, explains that the standard specifies software entitlement “tags.” The tags typically are included with software license purchasing documents and can be delivered in different methods. ISO/IEC 19770-3 tags feature a unique identifier for each instance of the tags. In addition, a single instance of a software package could include several entitlement tags. The ISO/IEC 19770-3 tags have details on rights for a software product, and details on entitlement limits, and ways limits and rights can be measured by customers, the blog post said.

And software entitlement tags help in licensing, distributing, and management of software and software entitlements, the blog post adds.

?In another blog post from Flexera Software, Mathieu Baissac, who was involved with the working group which came up with the standard, explains that software licensing models are constantly changing and customers and publishers need to be able to understand/explain their rights.

The tag (News - Alert) offers digital encapsulation in an XML format. It lists the rights and limitations for the customer. It also offers details for compliance with the rights and limits, the blog explains.

The standard provides: timing, such as start and end dates; limits to which countries are involved; the types of customers who can use it; the language it can appear in; and other kinds of limits, the blog post said.

These standards let publishers also inform their customers on how to remain compliant, the blog post adds. Also, the standard is expected to improve understanding and management of software licensing, the blog post adds. This will be of assistance to customers because it ensures compliance with licensing and optimizes usage and costs for the licensing.