A guide on how to license your software application and how to choose the right type of licensing agreement for your app.

1. Software
licensing
agreements

2. A guide on how to license your software
and how to choose the right type of
licensing agreement for your software.

3. Your choice of license agreement
for your software depends on what
you wish to grant to a user.

4. A software license is
an agreement between
a developer and user
on how a software product
can be used.
What is a
software license?

5. Some licensing agreements
can be general and apply to all users
or they can be more specific
to particular users.
Other type of software licensing agreements
allow users to modify the app’s code.

6. Clauses for a software licensing agreement
All licensing agreements for software contain similar provisions.

7. 1 - Permitted use

8. The software license agreement must
indicate whether the use of the app is
exclusive to the one licensed user or it’s
limited to particular purposes.
1 - Permitted use

9. 2 - Restrictions

10. 2 - Restrictions
The “Restrictions” clause in a software
license agreement often overlaps with the
“Permitted use”, but many include specific
restrictions in the agreement such as:
No reverse engineering
Limiting the number of copies
No derivative uses

11. 3 - Intellectual
property rights

12. 3 - Intellectual
property rights
If you want to keep your software
closed-source, your licensing agreement
will need a section explaining that the
copyright belongs to you.

13. 4 - Warranties
and limitations

14. 4 - Warranties and
limitations
If you allow users to create derivative
works with your software code, that has
the ability to open you to liability if it
doesn’t work for them.

15. 5 - Redistributions
terms

16. 5 - Redistributions
terms
If a user creates a profitable product
using your software code, do you expect
compensation? Any royalty requirements
need to be indicated clearly to the user.

17. How to choose a software license

18. Choosing a license form depends on whether your
software is
free,
purchased or
contains open source code.

19. 1 - Broad license

20. 1 - Broad license
A “broad license” allows users to modify
the software and use the code in their
own proprietary products, including those
products that are distributed for profit.

21. 2 - GNU license

22. 2 - GNU license
While using the GNU license for your software
leaves your software open to being changed
for personal preferences, there are still
limitations on using it for proprietary
products or distributing it.
Sharing is encouraged, but not for a price.

25. 3 - EULA license

26. 3 - EULA license
The EULA license for a software is used
to limit use.
The EULA agreement does not
allow for derivative products or
reverse engineering either.

27. 3 - EULA license
The EULA agreement can offer additional
intellectual property protection that would
not be present in other type of software
agreements.

28. A GNU license encourages free distribution, but Microsoft’s
own licensing and subscription agreement available through
Microsoft products is more limiting:

29. The EULA agreement is normally enough if all you
wish to authorize is use.
However, if you offer open source code, going to a
GNU or modified GNU is likely a good way to go.

30. Disclaimer: Legal information is not legal advice
termsfeed.com
@termsfeed

31. Credits
The following icons are from The Noun Project:
on slide 7 "programmer" by Gan Khoo,
on slide 9 "code" by Brennan Novak,
on slide 13 "Repair" by Arthur Shlain,
on slide 15 "Allow Redistribution"
and on slide 19 "Clean Code" by icon 54.