A site license is a type of
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 ...
that allows the user to install a
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
package in several computers simultaneously, such as at a particular site (facility) or across a
corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
.
Depending on the amount of fees paid, the license may be unlimited or may limit simultaneous access to a certain number of users. The latter is called a concurrent site license.
Overview
The term "site" may not necessarily refer to a physical site or geographic location. It is simply defines a limitation on the user's access rights.
The usage of the term dates back to 1950s, when
mainframes
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...
limited to a specific sites were being used. Nowadays, these types of licenses are rare, but still used in some sectors like manufacturing. Vendors may insert clauses that would allow representatives to visit the site and verify that the software usage conforms to the license.
Site licenses are sometimes called multiseat licenses in implied distinction from individual (single-seat) licenses; this usage parallels the terminology of
multiseat configuration
A multiseat, multi-station or multiterminal system is a single computer which supports multiple independent local users at the same time.
A "seat" consists of all hardware devices assigned to a specific workplace at which one user sits at and i ...
s for mainframes, with the same
figurative analogy A figurative analogy is a comparison about two things that are not alike but share only some common property. On the other hand, a literal analogy is about two things that are nearly exactly alike.
The two things compared in a figurative analogy ...
of multiple workers each seated in front of an instance (one
terminal
Terminal may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together
* Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line
* Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...
or one copy of the application). The cost of the license
[ can then be analyzed in terms of cost per installed seat, with the idea being that such cost must be lower if site licensing is to be advantageous over individual licensing.
Another aspect, aside from cost, is convenience. Some software vendors had one-floppy per computer restrictions, which the ''New York Times'' described as "the equivalent of a book publisher insisting that no two people could use the same book, even at different times."][ A different inconvenience was '']copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media.
Copy protection is most commonly found on ...
'', which was deprecated as ''crippleware''.
Customization
Customizations, subset, restricted and specialized licensing arrangements are among those arrangements that are beyond individual single-copy licenses. One such pricing, for a customized "site licensing" refers to deals made by large institutions, like universities, with software firms so that affiliated persons can buy the software at discounted prices.
See also
* Shelfware
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Site License
Software licenses
Terms of service