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Software Licensing 101: The Terminology

By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor

In order to better understand the often-complicated pathways on the route of software licensing, professionals both on the purchasing and developing end usually start with ensuring compliance. There are many challenges associated with this topic, and it is up to the IT professionals to address these challenges and be cognizant of their role in keeping businesses compliant, but for developers it’s about obtaining and maintaining monetization. Regardless of the issues and challenges, for those who are unfamiliar with the landscape of software licensing, there are a few terms that might make more sense when explained and defined by the experts like Flexera Software.

In a recent blog post, Flexera Software discussed some of the more common terminology that is used in the software licensing industry, specific to its own company, in order to make sense of different licensing types and to better understand what the experts in the industry are talking about. Terms like license borrowing, licensing lifecycle, and software monetization, and software licensing agreement (SLA) are discussed, among many.

Licensing policy, agreements, and licensing borrowing are all part of permission policies, something that IT managers need to keep tabs on within the organization to maintain compliance.

If caught non-compliant with application permission policies, it’s very likely that it will lead to adverse results over organizations. Application authorization infringement cases can attract heavy fines, impoundments and even detention. Prior to purchasing any tool, it is important to go through license agreements and meet all its criteria so as to avoid any kind of future infringements.

It is up to IT departments to demonstrate they have an understanding of licensing issues and bring to light any occurrence of noncompliance and challenges they find.

Understanding terms within the software licensing community can help both developers and purchasers get a better view of how this particular industry operates. With software, customers don’t actually own anything. Instead, they purchase the right to use the software based on the terms and conditions of their licensing agreement. The parameters of these agreements include license terms, metrics, and licensed features.

Knowing the difference between these and starting at the basics is integral to educating yourself, staff and others in software licensing sector.