BIN Digest

One of the biggest concerns facing software developers is the control of their final product. Software piracy and theft are at all time highs as more and more programs are illegally made available on the internet. This kind of theft is a reality, but is there any legal action that you, the software developer, can take? There is if you have a software license agreement in place.

Without the software license agreement, anyone who owns the CD or computer where your program sits can distribute it to whomever they wish. Once a software license is in place, however, you as the creator can limit the amount of uses that particular program has. With this agreement signed (or digitally agreed to), any illegal use of the software from that point forward can allow you to take legal action against the illegal users.

These software license agreements are commonly found in a digital format with each copy of the software, but can also be in the form of a written agreement between a custom software developer and the client for whom they are developing the software. This second situation is the most important because it gives the software developer the most control over the situation. If you can lay down the licensing rules from the beginning, you can have the opportunity to make more money by simply selling the licenses and not having to create the software all over again.