Proprietary software is
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
that is deemed within the
free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a
legal monopoly afforded by modern
copyright and
intellectual property law
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
to exclude the recipient from freely sharing the software or modifying it, and—in some cases, as is the case with some patent-encumbered and
EULA-bound software—from making use of the software on their own, thereby restricting his or her freedoms. It is often contrasted with
open-source or
free software.
For this reason, it is also known as non-free software or closed-source software.
Types
Origin
Until the late 1960s computers—large and expensive
mainframe computers, machines in specially air-conditioned computer rooms—were usually
lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
d to customers rather than
sold.
[
] Service and all software available were usually supplied by manufacturers without separate charge until 1969. Computer vendors usually provided the source code for installed software to customers. Customers who developed software often made it available to others without charge. Closed source means computer programs whose source code is not published except to licensees. It is available to be edited only by the organization that developed it and those licensed to use the software.
In 1969, IBM, which had
antitrust lawsuits pending against it, led an industry change by
starting to charge separately for mainframe software and services, by unbundling hardware and software.
Bill Gates' "
Open Letter to Hobbyists" in 1976 decried computer hobbyists' rampant
copyright infringement of software, particularly Microsoft's
Altair BASIC
Altair BASIC is a discontinued interpreter for the BASIC programming language that ran on the MITS Altair 8800 and subsequent S-100 bus computers. It was Microsoft's first product (as Micro-Soft), distributed by MITS under a contract. Altair BASI ...
interpreter, and asserted that their unauthorized use hindered his ability to produce quality software. But the legal status of
software copyright, especially for
object code
In computing, object code or object module is the product of a compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ...
, was not clear until the 1983 appeals court ruling in
Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp.
According to
Brewster Kahle the legal characteristic of software changed also due to the U.S.
Copyright Act of 1976.
[Robert X]
Cringely's interview with Brewster Kahle
46th minute
Starting in February 1983 IBM adopted an "
object-code-only" model for a growing list of their software and stopped shipping much of the source code, even to licensees.
In 1983, binary software became copyrightable in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
as well by the
Apple vs. Franklin law decision, before which only source code was copyrightable.
Additionally, the growing availability of millions of computers based on the same microprocessor architecture created for the first time an unfragmented and big enough market for binary distributed software.
Legal basis
Most of the software is covered by
copyright which, along with
contract law,
patents, and
trade secrets, provides legal basis for its owner to establish exclusive rights.
A software vendor delineates the specific terms of use in an
end-user license agreement
An end-user license agreement or EULA () is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or end-user, generally made available to the customer via a retailer acting as an intermediary. A EULA specifies in detail the rights and rest ...
(EULA). The user may agree to this contract in writing, interactively on screen (
clickwrap A clickwrap or clickthrough agreement is a prompt that offers individuals the opportunity to accept or decline a digitally-mediated policy. Privacy policies, terms of service and other user policies, as well as copyright policies commonly employ t ...
), or by opening the box containing the software (
shrink wrap licensing). License agreements are usually
not negotiable.
Software patents grant exclusive rights to algorithms, software features, or other
patentable subject matter
Patentable, statutory or patent-eligible subject matter is subject matter which is susceptible of patent protection. The laws or patent practices of many countries provide that certain subject-matter is excluded from patentability, even if the inv ...
, with coverage varying by jurisdiction. Vendors sometimes grant patent rights to the user in the license agreement.
The
source code for a piece of propietary software is routinely handled as a
trade secret. Software can be made available with fewer restrictions on licensing or source-code access; software that satisfies certain conditions of freedom and openness is known as "
free" or "
open-source."
Limitations
Since license agreements do not override applicable
copyright law
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
or
contract law, provisions in conflict with applicable law are not enforceable. Some software is specifically licensed and not sold, in order to avoid limitations of copyright such as the
first-sale doctrine
The first-sale doctrine (also sometimes referred to as the "right of first sale" or the "first sale rule") is an American legal concept that limits the rights of an intellectual property owner to control resale of products embodying its intellec ...
.
Exclusive rights
The owner of proprietary software exercises certain
exclusive rights over the software. The owner can restrict the use, inspection of source code, modification of source code, and redistribution.
Use of the software
Vendors typically limit the number of computers on which software can be used, and prohibit the user from installing the software on extra computers. Restricted use is sometimes enforced through a technical measure, such as
product activation
Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary software programs. Product activation prevents unlimited free use of copied or replicated software. Unactivated software refuses to fully function until it ''determin ...
, a
product key or serial number, a
hardware key, or
copy protection.
Vendors may also distribute versions that remove particular features, or versions which allow only certain fields of endeavor, such as non-commercial, educational, or non-profit use.
Use restrictions vary by license:
*
Windows Vista Starter is restricted to running a maximum of three concurrent applications.
* The retail edition of
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is limited to non-commercial use on up to three devices in one household.
*
Windows XP can be installed on one computer, and limits the number of network file sharing connections to 10. The
Home Edition disables features present in Windows XP Professional.
* Traditionally,
Adobe licenses are limited to one user, but allow the user to install a second copy on a home computer or laptop. This is no longer true with the switching to Creative Cloud.
*
iWork '09, Apple's productivity suite, is available in a five-user family pack, for use on up to five computers in a household.
Inspection and modification of source code
Vendors typically distribute proprietary software in
compiled form, usually the
machine language understood by the computer's
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just Processor (computing), processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes Instruction (computing), instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU per ...
. They typically retain the
source code, or human-readable version of the software, often written in a
higher level programming language. This scheme is often referred to as closed source.
While most proprietary software is distributed without the source code, some vendors distribute the source code or otherwise make it available to customers. For example, users who have purchased a license for the Internet forum software
vBulletin
vBulletin is a proprietary Internet forum software package sold by MH Sub I, LLC doing business as vBulletin (formerly Jelsoft Enterprises and vBulletin Solutions). It is written in PHP and uses a MariaDB or MySQL database server. Similar pro ...
can modify the source for their own site but cannot redistribute it. This is true for many web applications, which must be in source code form when being run by a web server. The source code is covered by a
non-disclosure agreement or a license that allows, for example, study and modification, but not redistribution. The text-based email client
Pine and certain implementations of
Secure Shell are distributed with proprietary licenses that make the source code available.Some licenses for proprietary software allow distributing changes to the source code, but only to others licensed for the product, and some of those modifications are eventually picked up by the vendor.
Some governments fear that proprietary software may include
defects or
malicious features which would compromise sensitive information. In 2003 Microsoft established a Government Security Program (GSP) to allow governments to view source code and Microsoft security documentation, of which the
Chinese government
The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, m ...
was an early participant.
The program is part of Microsoft's broader
Shared Source Initiative
The Shared Source Initiative (SSI) is a source-available software licensing scheme launched by Microsoft in May 2001. The program includes a spectrum of technologies and licenses, and most of its source code offerings are available for download a ...
which provides source code access for some products. The Reference Source License (Ms-RSL) and Limited Public License (Ms-LPL) are proprietary software licenses where the source code is
made available.
Governments have also been accused of adding such malware to software themselves. According to documents released by
Edward Snowden, the
NSA has used covert partnerships with software companies to make commercial encryption software exploitable to eavesdropping, or to insert
backdoors.
Software vendors sometimes use
obfuscated code
In software development, obfuscation is the act of creating source or machine code that is difficult for humans or computers to understand. Like obfuscation in natural language, it may use needlessly roundabout expressions to compose statemen ...
to impede users who would
reverse engineer the software. This is particularly common with certain
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
s. For example, the
bytecode for programs written in
Java can be easily
decompiled to somewhat usable code, and the source code for programs written in
scripting languages such as
PHP or
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
is available at
run time
Run(s) or RUN may refer to:
Places
* Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia
* Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant
People
* Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...
.
Redistribution
Proprietary software vendors can prohibit the users from sharing the software with others. Another unique license is required for another party to use the software.
In the case of proprietary software with source code available, the vendor may also prohibit customers from distributing their modifications to the source code.
Shareware is closed-source software whose owner encourages redistribution at no cost, but which the user sometimes must pay to use after a trial period. The fee usually allows use by a single user or computer. In some cases, software features are restricted during or after the trial period, a practice sometimes called
crippleware
Crippleware has been defined in realms of both computer software and hardware. In software, crippleware means that "vital features of the program such as printing or the ability to save files are disabled until the user purchases a registration ke ...
.
Interoperability with software and hardware
Proprietary file formats and protocols
Proprietary software often stores some of its data in file formats that are incompatible with other software, and may also communicate using
protocols
Protocol may refer to:
Sociology and politics
* Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states
* Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state
* Etiquette, a code of personal behavior
Science and technology ...
which are incompatible. Such formats and protocols may be restricted as
trade secrets or subject to
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
s.
Proprietary APIs
A proprietary
application programming interface (API) is a
software library interface "specific to one device or, more likely to a number of devices within a particular manufacturer's product range."
The motivation for using a proprietary API can be
vendor lock-in or because standard APIs do not support the device's functionality.
The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
, in its March 24, 2004, decision on Microsoft's business practices, quotes, in paragraph 463, Microsoft general manager for
C++
C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
development Aaron Contorer as stating in a February 21, 1997, internal Microsoft memo drafted for
Bill Gates:
:The
Windows API is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most ISVs would be crazy not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different operating system instead.
Early versions of the
iPhone SDK
The iOS SDK (iOS Software Development Kit), formerly the iPhone SDK, is a software development kit (SDK) developed by Apple Inc. The kit allows for the development of mobile apps on Apple's iOS and iPadOS operating systems.
The iOS SDK is a fre ...
were covered by a
non-disclosure agreement. The agreement forbade independent developers from discussing the content of the interfaces. Apple discontinued the NDA in October 2008.
Vendor lock-in
Any dependency on the future versions and upgrades for a proprietary software package can create ''vendor lock-in'', entrenching a monopoly position.
Software limited to certain hardware configurations
Proprietary software may also have licensing terms that limit the usage of that software to a specific set of hardware.
Apple has such a licensing model for
macOS, an operating system which is limited to Apple hardware, both by licensing and various design decisions. This licensing model has been affirmed by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Abandonment by proprietors
Proprietary software which is no longer marketed, supported or sold by its owner is called
abandonware
Abandonware is a product, typically software, ignored by its owner and manufacturer, and for which no official support is available.
Within an intellectual rights contextual background, abandonware is a software (or hardware) sub-case of the ...
, the digital form of
orphaned works
An orphan work is a copyright-protected work for which rightsholders are positively indeterminate or uncontactable. Sometimes the names of the originators or rightsholders are known, yet it is impossible to contact them because additional details ...
. If the proprietor of a software package should cease to exist, or decide to cease or limit production or support for a proprietary software package, recipients and users of the package may have no recourse if problems are found with the software. Proprietors can fail to improve and support software because of business problems. Support for older or existing versions of a software package may be ended to force users to upgrade and pay for newer versions(
planned obsolescence
In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is a policy of planning or designing a good (economics), product with an artificially limited Product lifetime, useful life o ...
). Sometimes another vendor or a software's community themselves can
provide support for the software, or the users can migrate to either competing systems with longer support life cycles or to
FOSS
Fos or FOSS may refer to:
Companies
* Foss A/S, a Danish analytical instrument company
*Foss Brewery, a former brewery in Oslo, Norway
* Foss Maritime, a tugboat and shipping company
Historic houses
* Foss House (New Brighton, Minnesota), Unite ...
-based systems.
Some proprietary software is released by their owner at
end-of-life as open-source or
source available software, often to prevent the software from becoming unsupported and unavailable
abandonware
Abandonware is a product, typically software, ignored by its owner and manufacturer, and for which no official support is available.
Within an intellectual rights contextual background, abandonware is a software (or hardware) sub-case of the ...
.
3D Realms
3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...
and
id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
are famous for the practice of releasing closed source software into the
open source. Some of those kinds are free-of-charge downloads (
freeware), some are still commercially sold (e.g.
Arx Fatalis). More examples of formerly closed-source software in the
List of commercial software with available source code and
List of commercial video games with available source code.
Pricing and economics
Proprietary software is not synonymous with
commercial software,
although the two terms are sometimes used synonymously in articles about free software. Proprietary software can be distributed at no cost or for a fee, and
free software can be distributed at no cost or for a fee.
The difference is that whether proprietary software can be distributed, and what the fee would be, is at the proprietor's discretion. With free software, anyone who has a copy can decide whether, and how much, to charge for a copy or related services.
Proprietary software that comes for no cost is called
freeware.
Proponents of commercial proprietary software argue that requiring users to pay for software as a product increases funding or time available for the
research and development of software. For example,
Microsoft says that per-copy fees maximize the profitability of software development.
Proprietary software generally creates greater commercial activity over free software, especially in regard to market revenues. Proprietary software is often sold with a license that gives the end user right to use the software.
Examples
Examples of proprietary software include
Microsoft Windows,
Adobe Flash Player,
PS3 OS,
Orbis OS,
iTunes,
Adobe Photoshop,
Google Earth,
macOS (formerly Mac OS X and OS X),
Skype,
WinRAR, Oracle's version of
Java, Huawei's
HarmonyOS and some versions of
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...
.
Software distributions considered as proprietary may in fact incorporate a "mixed source" model including both free and non-free software in the same distribution. Most if not all so-called proprietary
UNIX
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...
distributions are mixed source software, bundling open-source components like
BIND
BIND () is a suite of software for interacting with the Domain Name System (DNS). Its most prominent component, named (pronounced ''name-dee'': , short for ''name daemon''), performs both of the main DNS server roles, acting as an authoritative ...
,
Sendmail,
X Window System,
DHCP
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks for automatically assigning IP addresses and other communication parameters to devices connected to the network using a cli ...
, and others along with a purely proprietary
kernel
Kernel may refer to:
Computing
* Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems
* Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution
* Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming
* Kernel method, in machine learn ...
and system utilities.
Some free software packages are also simultaneously available under proprietary terms. Examples include
MySQL,
Sendmail and ssh. The original copyright holders for a work of free software, even copyleft free software, can use
dual-licensing
Multi-licensing is the practice of distributing software under two or more different sets of terms and conditions. This may mean multiple different software licenses or sets of licenses. Prefixes may be used to indicate the number of licenses ...
to allow themselves or others to redistribute proprietary versions. Non-copyleft free software (i.e. software distributed under a permissive free software license or released to the public domain) allows anyone to make proprietary redistributions.
Free software that depends on proprietary software is considered "trapped" by the Free Software Foundation. This includes software written only for Microsoft Windows, or software that could only run on
Java, before it became free software.
See also
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Proprietary Software
Software licenses