Member Avatar for Andy90

I have created an application in C#. I want to make it copyright protected / license.
I want my application to be freeware, and not open source.

From where and how to obtain the software license?
Please help!!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mike_2000_17
Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

You don't need to "obtain" a software license from anywhere. When you are the author of a piece of software, you automatically have the copyrights to it (copyrights just mean that you get to decide who can use it, to what extent, for what purpose, and for what price). Now, if you want to distribute your software, you need to give a permission to people for using it, including the terms by which they can use it, and this is called a license. It is no more than a text that describes the terms (or rules) for the user. So, when you talk about licenses like BSD, GPL, LGPL, Apache, etc., it is really referring to a standard text that describe the terms, a text which has been written by lawyers (and other law-savvy people) and have sometimes been used or challenged in court (and have won). In theory, you could write your own license terms, but if you are better pick a standard license text that has been proven to be legally valid and can stand up in court if the need arises.

I don't know any widely used closed-source freeware license, but I would imagine there are plenty. You can look at prominant freeware licenses (like Acrobat Reader, or Winamp) and see which fits you the best. And again, "obtaining" the license is just a matter of picking a license text (set of terms) that fits your needs and to attach that text to your software (like most other applications, you install and have to click "I Agree" to the license text). Software licenses are not like patents, you don't need to go to a patents office or something to obtain it. Patents need to be registered because they are a double-assurance on your "idea", for things that are easy to copy by reverse engineering.

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