Did you know that you technically don't own the software you purchase for use on your computer? You actually license its usage. As we've become a world where it's not uncommon to work across some combination of computer and mobile devices, we're actually becoming keenly aware of this as software tells us how many devices the purchase price will cover. The license only covers so many active installations...even if that number is one.
The fact that software is licensed rather than owned by those who legally acquire it has been a thorn in users' sides more than once. Some of you may be old enough to remember the brief, but very mistaken practice, where certain companies who shall remain nameless actually printed on their box that breaking the box's wrapping triggered the End User License Agreement (EULA), sight unseen...and as you can already predict if you didn't actually see this go down, the EULA all but demanded users' first-born, simply for using the software.
Social media and various media-hosting platforms have gone through their own growing pains related to rights grabs as part of the EULA...which have often been ferreted out quickly and either led to a change in the EULA or triggered a bit of an exodus. (This is why you're strongly encouraged to read the license agreements you don't want to waste the time reading. They can be uncomfortably enlightening sometimes.)
But for as confusing as software licensing can be for end users, software copyright in an increasingly open source world is even more of a headache. And users are starting to see this more and more in the chaos released as "functional software" by developers worried about being hacked and having their hard work swiped.
To be clear, software is something made and fixed in a tangible form. That automatically grants it copyright protection. Use it or modify it without the proper permissions, and you're screwed. And software developers love to let lawyers explain this to code stealers.
For those of a shred rights mindset, open source is a set of licenses that allows a software developer to release their software to be implemented, modified, and distributed free of charge by other developers and users. This can be great for getting more people to use the software (or operating system, in the case of Linux). It can also be great for collaborating loosely with other developers, as long as they operate within the parameters of the license.. Open source software is often released with the limitations spelled out in the EULA or on forums related to the software.
Developers can even release their software into the Public Domain by means of the Unlicense (http://unlicense.org/), inviting others to branch off and use the code as a base to build their own projects. However, if software is released as freeware, that does not mean it's in the Public Domain or Open Source. The software is still under full copyright protection; it's just free for people to use. (Learn more about freeware and Open Source: https://www.newmediarights.org/business_models/artist/does_software_labeled_freeware_have_copyright)
When working digitally, always be mindful of the copyright on the software you're using...and on the digital products you create.
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Copyright for Creatives
Non-FictionWe hear a lot about copyright...when it's coming into play. Celebrities and YouTube Personalities recently sued a game for using their trademark dance without permission. And then a bunch of old stories, poetry, and movies were released into the Pu...
