Learn More About Software Licenses and Registration

A software license is a contract distributed with a program that gives you the right to install and use the program on only one computer. If you want to install the program on more than one computer, you must purchase additional licenses. Organizations such as colleges and universities often purchased site licenses, which are contracts with the software publisher that enable an organization to install copies of a program on a specified number of computers. Site licenses offer large organizations multiple software licenses at a slightly reduced cost, in some instances the savings can be astronomical.

In addition, when you own an original legitimate copy of a program, you are entitled to certain warranties and guaranties. With regards to warranties, most software publishers will be happy to replace the defective program disk, but that is about it. A software license expressly denies any liability on the publisher's part for any damages or losses suffered through the use of the software. If you buy a program that has bugs, and if these bugs wipe out your data, it is your own bad luck and you have no recourse. At least that is what software companies would like you to believe. In most cases, however, the software licenses have not stood up in court; both judges and juries have agreed that the products were sold with an implied warranty of fitness for a particular use.

When you purchase a program, you are often also asked to register your software by filling out a registration form, either online or via snail mail.

Generally, registration is worth a few minutes of hassle in the long run as you never know when an expensive piece of software will need upgrades or warranty replacement. In fact, in today's Internet age most software will provide you with automatic online updates free of charge after you register it. Even software companies to charge for new versions will usually offer you a discounted price both because you are a previously registered and licensed customer and also because you download the software without having to buy or have anything shipped to you.

Software licenses and software registration are more and more often bypassed by illegal pirating of software via the Internet and peer-to-peer file sharing but, as you can plainly see, paying for legitimate licenses and registering your software appropriately can provide some great benefits that you do not receive from illegally pirating software.