A per-seat license (or "named user license") is a

software license A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law, all software is copyright protected, in both source ...

model based on the number of individual users who have access to a digital service or product. For example, 50-user per-seat license would mean that up to 50 individual named users can access the program. Per seat licensing is administered by providing

user-level security A modern computer operating system usually segregates virtual memory into user space and kernel space. Primarily, this separation serves to provide memory protection and hardware protection from malicious or errant software behaviour. Kernel ...

to the directory containing the program. It contrasts with the

concurrent user license Floating licensing, also known as concurrent licensing or network licensing, is a software licensing approach in which a limited number of licenses for a software application are shared among a larger number of users over time. When an authorized ...

, based on the number of simultaneous users (regardless of which individuals they are) accessing the program. It typically deals with software running in the server where users connect via the network. For example, in a 50-user concurrent use license, after 50 users are logged on to the program, the 51st user is blocked. When any one of the first 50 logs off, the next person can log on. Concurrent licensing can be managed by the application itself or via independent

software metering Software metering refers to several areas: *Tracking and maintaining software licenses. One needs to make sure that only the allowed number of licenses are in use, and at the same time, that there are enough licenses for everyone using it. This c ...

tools. Per seat licensing often imposes restrictions on the users. A user may be a person, software or device accessing the software. User licenses may be differentiated by user types, as authorized users, external user, internal user, qualified user, etc. User types to be taken into account are determined by the licensing requirements. Per-seat licensing is common for products used by specialised professionals in industrial settings. In addition to computer programming, typical examples include chemists, molecular biologists, geographers, and designers. Per-seat licensing usually only applies to intellectual property, but in 2001, per-seat licensing was applied to the real-world as part of a traveling art installation at various museums and art galleries, starting with San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). In this exhibit, seating was equipped with retractable spikes, the spikes retracting when payment was inserted. Various licensing schemes were offered, including a floating license which would allow the owner of the license to sit on any ONE (i.e. not be able to share the seating license) of the Internet-connected chairs; the license only allowed one set of spikes to retract at-a-time, thus creating a floating license to real physical objects (e.g. seating, and various other physical objects).CA 2325569 (Canadian Patent)
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References

{{reflist Software licenses