License in United States

License Definition

(Lat. licere, to permit). By Government. An authorization by the government to an individual to do certain acts, or carry on a certain business. Thus, marriage licenses, saloon keepers’ licenses, pilots’ licenses, etc. In Contracts. A permission; a right given by some competent authority (according to the definition of License based on the Cyclopedic Law Dictionary; this definition may need to be proofread) to do an act which, without such authority, would be illegal. An authority to do a particular act or series of acts on another’s land without possessing any estate therein.

In Real Property: The written evidence of the grant of such right. An executed license exists where the licensed act has been done. An executory license exists where the licensed act has not been performed. An express license is one which is granted in direct terms. An implied license is one which is presumed to have been given from the acts of the party authorized to give it. It is distinguished from an easement, which implies an interest in the land to be affected, and a lease, or right to take the profits of land. It may be, however, and often is, coupled with a grant of some interest in the land itself, or right to take the profits. 1 Washb. Real Prop. 148. A license may be by specialty (2 Pars. Cont. 22) ; by parol (13 Mees. & W. 838; 4 Maule & S. 562; 7 Barb. [N. Y.] 4; 1 Washb. Keal Prop. 148) ; or by implication from circumstances, as opening a door in response to a knock (Hob. 62; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 427). In International Law. Permission granted by a belligerent state to its own subjects, or to the subjects of the enemy, to carry on a trade interdicted by war. Wheaton. Int. Law, 475. In Patent Law. A right granted by a patentee to another to use or vend the patented article. In Pleading. A plea of justification to an action of trespass, that the defendant was authorized by the owner of the freehold to commit the trespass complained of. A license must be specially pleaded to an action of trespass (2 Term R. 166), but may be given in evidence in an action on the case (2 Mod. 6; 8 East, 308). Read more about the definition of License in the Legal Dictionaries.

Plain-English Law

License as defined by Nolo’s Encyclopedia of Everyday Law (p. 437-455):

(of invention, copyright, or trademark) A contract giving written permission to use an invention, creative work, or trademark. lien The right of a secured creditor to take a specific item of property if the borrower doesn’t pay a debt.

End User License Agreements (EULAs)

By Sandra Rosenzweig

Microsoft’s current Office EULA allows the transfer of the EULA: “If you are the person who initially licensed the Software, you may make a one-time permanent transfer of this EULA, Software and Certificate of Authenticity (if applicable) to another end user, provided that you do not retain any copies of the Software.”

For example, some EULAs prohibit users from reverse-engineering the program (taking it apart to see what makes it tick). A prohibition on reverse engineering seems reasonable enough: If I take apart, say, a Boeing 707 and then use that information to build a Rosenzweig 707, you might call that stealing. However, what if I’m figuring out what makes a program tick so that I might integrate, say, the Rosenzweig 707 file-tracking system into Microsoft Word? Most of us would consider that customizing, not theft. Joan Didion has told several interviewers that before she starts writing any new novel, she rereads the same three books-Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier, Joseph Conrad’s Victory, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. She’s reading the masters not to plagiarize but to remember how a novel should be written. So the no-reverse-engineering clause is just one of the many ways hard-line EULAs stifle innovation.

No one has ever explained to my satisfaction why, when it comes to ownership, software is different from a book, magazine, or KitchenAid mixer. For example, you are allowed to photocopy pages of any of the books I’ve written. Why can’t I copy part of your program?

Another example: The Terms of Service agreement for the iTunes Music Store states, “Apple reserves the right, at any time and from time to time, to update, revise, supplement, and otherwise modify this Agreement and to impose new or additional rules, policies, terms, or conditions on your use of the Service … Your continued use of the iTunes Music Store following will be deemed to constitute your acceptance of any and all such Additional Terms.” In any other context, agreeing in advance to all future changes to a contract would be called idiocy. In computer circles, it’s called gotcha by the short ones.

Nowadays, it is difficult to find a program that doesn’t have a EULA of some kind, and with the EULA comes a multitude of ways for the user to accept the terms of the license-be it by clicking “Yes” or “I accept” on a form during the installation process, or by the mere act of removing the shrink-wrap from the package. In the past, we shrugged and pointed out that we had to accept the EULA’s terms because we needed to use the program. However, we now have choices among programs-and EULAs.

By the way, one of my principal sources on questionable EULA provisions is “Dangerous Terms” by Annalee Newitz on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s site (www.eff.org/ wp/eula.php). I subscribe to EFF’s email newsletter, but I would have missed this article if Donna Wentworth hadn’t linked to it on Corante’s Copyfight blog (www.corante.com/ copyfight/archives/2005/02/19/how_does_your_eula_suck.php). If you’re at all interested in IP issues, try a daily dose of Copyfight and Yale Law School’s LawMeme (http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/).

License in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias

For starting research in the law of a foreign country:

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Special comprehensive license

Find more information on Special comprehensive license in relation to the Export Administration System in the legal Encyclopedias.

License and the International Trade Law

Resources

See Also

Further Reading

• License entry in the Dictionary of International Trade Law (Raj Bhala)
• License entry in the Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History (Thomas Carson; Mary Bonk)
• License entry in the Dictionary of International Trade
• License entry in the Dictionary of International Trade: Handbook of the Global Trade Community (Edward G. Hinkelman)