Proprietary software is any computer software with restrictions on use or private modification, or with restrictions judged to be excessive on copying or publishing of modified or unmodified versions. 'Copyright infringement' (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use of material that is covered by Copyright law in a manner that violates A software publisher is a Publishing company in the Software industry between the developer and the distributor. The term proprietary software is thus the antonym of free software, generally speaking. In Lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male: female, long: short Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified These restrictions are placed on it by one of its proprietors. The word proprietary indicates that a party or proprietor exercises private Ownership, control or use over an item of Property. Similar terms include "closed-source software" and "non-free software".
These restrictions are enforced by either legal or technical means, or both. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt The most common form of technical restriction is by releasing programs that are only computer-readable (for example, in binary format), and withholding the human-readable source code. Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. The term machine-readable (or computer-readable) refers to information Encoded in a form which can be read (i In Computer science, source code (commonly just source or code) is any sequence of statements or declarations written in some Human-readable Means of legal enforcement can involve copyright (with a restrictive software licence) and patents. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition The source code of such programs is usually regarded as a trade secret by the owner. A trade secret is a Formula, practice, Process, Design, instrument, Pattern, or compilation of Information which Access to source code by third parties commonly requires the party to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA also known as a confidentiality agreement, confidential disclosure agreement (CDA proprietary information agreement
The free software movement's founder Richard Stallman sometimes uses the term "user subjugating software", while Eben Moglen sometimes talks of "unfree software". The free software movement (also known as open source movement, free and open source software movement and abbreviated FSM OSM or FOSSM) is a relatively Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, The term "non-free" is often used by Debian developers to describe any software whose license does not comply with Debian Free Software Guidelines, and they use "proprietary software" specifically for non-free software that provide no source code. Debian ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free and open source software. The Debian Free Software Guidelines ( DFSG) is a set of guidelines that the Debian Project uses to determine whether a software license is a Free software license The Open Source Initiative prefers the term "closed source software". The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting Open-source software. Proprietary software vendors usually do not use this term or use it with another meaning.
Contents |
Relation to commercialisation
"Proprietary software" is not synonymous with "commercial 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. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified The difference is that whether or not 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.
Literal and legal meanings
The literal legal mean of "proprietary" in relation to software is that it has an owner who can exercise control over what users can do with the software.
Exclusive legal rights to software by a proprietor are not required for software to be proprietary, since public domain software and software under a permissive licence can become proprietary software by distributing compiled (binary) versions of the program without making the source code available. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone A compiler is a Computer program (or set of programs that translates text written in a computer language (the source language) into another Proprietary software includes freeware and shareware. Freeware is computer Software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee The term shareware, popularized by Bob Wallace, refers to Copyrighted commercial Software that is Distributed without payment on a trial
Software distributions considered as proprietary may in fact incorporate a "mixed source" model including both free and non-free software in the same distribution. [1] Most if not all so-called proprietary UNIX distributions are mixed source software, bundling open source components like BIND, Sendmail, X Window System, DHCP, and others along with a purely proprietary kernel and system utilities. Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer BIND ( Berkeley Internet Name Domain or "named" is the most commonly used DNS server on the Internet especially on Unix -like systems where it Sendmail is a Mail transfer agent (MTA that supports many kinds of mail transfer and delivery including the overwhelmingly popular SMTP. In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS [2][3]
For some free software, the same laws used by proprietary software are used to preserve the freedoms to use, copy and modify the software. This technique is called copyleft. Copyleft is a play on the word Copyright and describes the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions
Reasons for
Proponents of commercial proprietary software, like Microsoft, argue that requiring users to pay for software as a product increases funding for the research and development of software. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer They claim that per-copy fees maximise the profitability of software development. [4]
Proprietary software is said to create greater commercial activity over free software, especially in regard to market revenues. [5]
Reasons against
A dependency on future versions and upgrades can create "vendor lock-in", entrenching a monopoly position. In Economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in, or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products
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 can be left at a disadvantage and have no recourse if problems are found with the software. Proprietors can fail to improve and support software because of business problems. [6] When no other vendor can provide support for the software, the ending of support for older or existing versions of a software package may be done to force users to upgrade and pay for newer versions. [7]
Semi-free software
Semi-free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation, is software that is not free software, but comes with permission for individuals to use, copy, distribute, and modify (including distribution of modified versions) only for non-profit purposes. The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified [8] Such software is also rejected by the Open Source Initiative and Debian. The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting Open-source software. Debian ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free and open source software.
PGP and Angband are examples of semi-free programs. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP is a Computer program that provides Cryptographic Privacy and Authentication. Angband is a dungeon-crawling Roguelike computer game derived from Umoria. The Free Software Foundation classifies semi-free software as non-free software, but draws a distinction between semi-free software and proprietary software.
Examples
Well known examples of proprietary software include Microsoft Windows, RealPlayer, iTunes, Adobe Photoshop, Mac OS X, WinZip and some versions of Unix. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. RealPlayer (briefly known also as RealOne Player) is a proprietary Cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number iTunes is a proprietary digital media player application introduced by Apple Inc Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently WinZip is a proprietary file archiver and compressor for Microsoft Windows, developed by WinZip Computing (formerly Nico Mak Computing Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer
Some free software packages are also simultaneously available under proprietary terms. Examples include MySQL, Sendmail and ssh. MySQL is a Relational database management system (RDBMS which has more than 11 million installations Sendmail is a Mail transfer agent (MTA that supports many kinds of mail transfer and delivery including the overwhelmingly popular SMTP. Secure Shell or SSH is a Network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a Secure channel between two networked devices The original copyright holders for a work of free software, even copyleft free software, can use dual-licensing to allow themselves or others to redistribute proprietary versions. Dual-licensing is the practice of distributing Software under two different sets of terms and conditions Non-copyleft free software (i. e. software distributed under a permissive free software licence or released to the public domain) allows anyone to make proprietary redistributions.
Some proprietary software comes with source code or provides offers to the source code. Users are free to use and even study and modify the software in these cases, but are restricted by either licences or non-disclosure agreements from redistributing modifications or sharing the software. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA also known as a confidentiality agreement, confidential disclosure agreement (CDA proprietary information agreement Examples include Pine, the Microsoft Shared source licence program, and certain proprietary implementations of ssh. Pine was a Freeware, Text-based E-mail client developed at the University of Washington. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Shared Source is Microsoft 's framework for sharing Computer program Source code with third parties
Shareware, like freeware, is proprietary software available at zero price, but differs in that it is free only for a trial period, after which some restriction is imposed or it is completely disabled. Proprietary software which is no longer marketed by its owner and is used without permission by users is called abandonware and may include source code. Abandonware refers to Computer software that is no longer sold or supported or whose Copyright ownership may be unclear for various reasons Some abandonware has its source code placed in the public domain either by its author or copyright holder and is therefore free software, not proprietary software.
Microsoft's Ms-LPL is an example of a licence where the source code is made available but it remains proprietary software. Shared Source is Microsoft 's framework for sharing Computer program Source code with third parties
For certain proprietary software where the user can access source code, such as online applications (such as Internet forum software) or Java applications (where the source can be obtained by decompiling), some developers will obfuscate the source code in order to make it difficult for users to obtain the original code.
See also
- Commercial software
- Glossary of legal terms in computer technology
- Proprietary hardware
- Glossary of legal terms in technology
- Comparison of open source and closed source
References
- ^ Engelfriet, Arnoud (August/September 2006). Proprietary hardware is hardware on which a vendor purposely places compatibility restrictions in order to maintain a Vendor lock-in. Open source (or Free software) and Closed source (or Proprietary software) are two approaches to the development control and "The best of both worlds". Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) (19). New Hibernia House, Winchester Walk, London Bridge, London SE1 9AG, United Kingdom: Gavin Stewart.
- ^ Loftus, Jack (2007-02-19). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum LinuxWorld: Managing mixed source software stacks. SearchEnterpriseLinux. com.
- ^ Tan, Aaron (2006-12-28). Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1065 - Westminster Abbey is Consecrated. 1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Novell: We're a 'mixed-source' company. CNET Networks, Inc.
- ^ The Commercial Software Model. Microsoft (May 2001). Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Retrieved on 2007-03-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a
- ^ Open Source Versus Commercial Software: Why Proprietary Software is Here to Stay. Sams Publishing (October 2005). Retrieved on 2007-03-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a
- ^ What happens when a proprietary software company dies?. NewsForge (October 2003). Retrieved on 2007-03-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a
- ^ Microsoft Turns Up The Heat On Windows 2000 Users. InformationWeek (December 2006). Retrieved on 2007-03-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a
- ^ Semi-free software, definition by the Free Software Foundation
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic