Software Copyrights for Educators

By Randy Edwards

The issue of copyrights and patents in schools and in society in general is an increasingly important one. The traditional view is that such protection is vital to a robust invention process. But as the U.S. Patent Office issues patents for such things as using a laser pointer as a cat amusement toy and as millions die in Africa due to unaffordable AIDS drugs, or as people realize that due to lobbying by Hollywood, even after 80+ years no movies -- not even old silent movies -- have entered the public domain, the topic is more and more debated publicly.

This article will examine one aspect of copyrights, that of computer software and the licensing of computer software.

The first point to remember is that all ideas are owned by the public and are in the public domain. As a financial incentive to spur innovation, the authors of the U.S. Constitution allowed for Congress to give a limited monopoly on a new idea to the idea's inventor before the idea/invention reverted back to the public domain. This Constitutional clause forms the basis of our patent and copyright system.

With computer software it's important to note that users never "buy" a computer program. The program, or more correctly the idea and implementation of the program, is copyrighted and the end user only purchases a license to use the program under specific circumstances.

Since each software author can -- and usually does -- create its own specialized, custom license, the buyer has to read and understand each individual license. This can be a tedious task and as educational technologists know, much time is spent ensuring that a school is legal and not violating its software license agreements.

Different software licenses allow users to do different things, but we can simplify this by dividing software licenses into several different categories.

Commercial Software

Commercial software is the type people are most familiar with. This is the "pay before you try" type of software which is boxed and sold in stores, or that is purchased via mail order or online. Commercial software generally has highly restrictive license agreements. To be honest, most users never actually read those license agreements but they'd be shocked if they did.

For example, let's say you installed Microsoft Office. When doing that you agreed to allow Microsoft or its designated third parties to enter your school/home/business and to search for illegally licensed (commonly called "pirated") software. You also agreed to pay for the full costs of this search (plus fines/penalties) if any illegal software is found. Other stipulations in Microsoft's End User License Agreement (EULA) are that you agree to allow Microsoft to access your computer remotely and to disable software, and that in some circumstances Microsoft restricts what you may say/write with its software (e.g. you cannot use Microsoft Word to write an article about how fast Windows is; you cannot use Microsoft Frontpage to create a web page which disparages Microsoft). While some people are shocked to learn that your free speech might be restricted this way, it's all there in black and white the EULA which users agreed to when installing the software. You simply cannot install the software without agreeing to this.

This example should illustrate the importance of reading EULAs. While the above example is one of the more intrusive EULAs, it is typical for an EULA to forbid you the right to use the software on more than one computer and/or to make copies of the computer software. Violation of an EULA is a crime and can quickly become a felony if the amount of illegal software exceeds a particular dollar amount.

It's also standard for software license agreements to disclaim any warranty or fitness of a software program. For example, if your word processor erases your hard drive or if your accounting software calculates your taxes incorrectly, you cannot sue the software manufacturer. Contrast this to a car. If your car's wheel falls off due to a defect, you can sue the car manufacturer. But remember, you purchased the car; you only agreed to a license to use the software program.

Some commercial software companies which sell software to the educational market do allow a teacher to install the software on their home computer. So the school buys a software license but the teacher can legally use it at home too. While this is nice, you have to be careful.

Let's say you run a crafts business during the summer months and you use your home computer for your bookkeeping. In such a case you probably wouldn't be able to legally use the program at home because the company doesn't want you possibly using the software for business purposes. Again, it's important to read the license agreement of commercial software packages to learn what type of restrictions you're agreeing to.

Shareware

What is commonly referred to as "shareware" is just another form of commercial software. Instead of selling the software in boxes on store shelves, shareware adopts a "try before you buy" model and encourages people to copy the software and give it to their friends. This is shareware's distribution and marketing model.

Make no mistake about it, shareware is still covered by an End User License Agreement (EULA). It's just that a typical shareware EULA will say something like, "You're encouraged to copy this software and to pass it around; but if you use the software for more than 30 days then you must purchase a license."

Since shareware authors know that most people won't pay for the software, it's common for shareware to have "nag screens" to urge people to register and pay for their shareware, or for the software to have "spy" features built into it which will notify the author of people who are using the software but who have not registered.

From a legal standpoint, shareware's position clear: if you use the software you have to pay for the software; if you don't pay for it, you're committing an illegal act. But again, for details, you have to read each particular program's license agreement. (How many times have I said that so far?! )

Freeware

Freeware is a type of no-cost software. Freeware is free (no-cost) to use, but the software is still copyrighted and licensed by its author. The freeware software license may or may not have a large number of restrictions in it -- again, you have to read the individual license to be sure.

Freeware typically does not include the "source code" to a computer program. The source code is the computer language code that the computer programmer typed in to create the program. With a program's source code, users may examine the code for security problems or bugs, and -- depending on the license -- may make modifications to the program. The potential for education and learning from examining a program's source code is a huge attraction for computer science educators and budding programmers.

Open Source

Open Source software includes the source code to the program. This gives the advantages mentioned above. Open source code software may or may not be no-cost software, and it may or may not allow you to modify the source code even if you have access to the source code -- again, it all depends on the license agreement.

Free Software

For software to be classified as "free software" the software must encompass two meanings of the word free: "free as in no-cost" and "free as in liberty." Because of possible confusion with restrictive freeware and shareware, free software is sometimes referred to as software libre.

Free software users always have access to their software's source code. And since we're talking about liberty, or freedom from restrictions, with free software you have the right to modify a program -- to change it, fix bugs, to add features, or to remove features. And of course you also have the freedom to copy a program and to give it to students, peers, and other people. For this reason, free software has been called "school-friendly software."

Free software is copyrighted and is typically licensed under the Free Software Foundation's General Public License (GPL). This license agreement, sometimes called the "copyleft" because of its stark contrast to restrictive commercial license agreements, was written to accommodate the Free Software Foundation's philosophy of non-restrictive software. While there are other free software license agreements, the GPL is by far the most popular.

If we take free software's idea of "freedom from restrictions" further, you also have the right to sell a GPL-licensed program. This is a radical departure from all other forms of software licensing. Free software allows for multiple vendors for a particular software package. However, if a company is selling free software, they have to make the program and its source code freely (no-cost) available too; this guarantees future freedom because no one can take free software and keep it secret.

Free software has created an entire new form of software development. Instead of the commercial software development model where a company keeps its source code as secret as possible, free software development is based on a competition of building on other people's work. This competition means huge benefits for users of software.

To take an example, the Koha library automation software package was written by a group of programmers under contract from a library system in Wellington, New Zealand. Koha was licensed under the GPL. Soon, a few other libraries around the world started using Koha. A school district in British Columbia, Canada decided that Koha didn't have a feature they wanted so they added it. A public library in Nelsonville, Ohio examined Koha but found it lacked some features. So the library contracted with some programmers to add those features to Koha; the cost of the contract programmers was much cheaper than purchasing a typical commercial library software package, so it made fiscal sense for the Ohio library. But you and I can now download and freely use the full Koha package with all these features. In the future, we can expect others will add still more features, and the Koha system is evolving quickly. And since anyone is free to package Koha and sell it, we have a choice of several companies to get support for Koha.

While the free software development model and licensing idea is a new one to most people, the ideas of sharing and cooperation behind it are as old as civilization itself.

Public Domain

Public domain software has no copyright. This software has been placed into the public domain and is free to use for any purpose. Anyone can take public domain software and copyright it and then keep it secret. Literally, anyone can do anything with public domain software.

Because there is no profit incentive and no guarantee of freedom for public domain software, very little public domain software is produced. The public domain software which is produced tends to be relatively simple types of programs.

Summary

It's important for schools to respect software license agreements. It is a legal issue and the penalties of violating software licenses are serious. Microsoft and other large commercial software vendors fund industry associations dedicated to auditing schools and companies for compliance with license agreements.

If you think your school is too small to be prosecuted, think again. While the odds are low you'll be found out, all one needs to do to report a license violation is to call a toll-free 800 number. The software industry has prosecuted both large and small school districts (since schools are funded with tax money, they're particularly attractive targets) and with the current technology slump, manufacturers are being more stringent than ever about license violations.

Even more important is the example that schools should set for their students. If a school turns a blind eye towards the violation of a software license agreement, how can the school prosecute a student for taking some change out of the school store? Aren't both examples of breaking the law?

As someone who has worked for years in educational technology, I've found the best way to handle this situation is to simply follow the software licenses to the letter. If I don't agree with a software license, then I simply don't need to use that particular program -- it's their business loss not mine. I simply won't stoop to stealing someone's software. I've found if I keep myself 100% legal, then I have no worries at all.