Licence breaches – not to be taken lightly

Software licensing law in Germany is governed by the Copyright Act, which was last amended in September 2003. Paragraph 69a expressly states that software is subject to protection provided that it meets certain criteria (depth of originality).

Liability for unlawful use of software within a company is initially assigned to the managing director.

There are different ways of acquiring utilization rights. Frequently, equipment such as computers or accessories come complete with OEM licences granting a right of use.

Most companies enter into separate licence agreements with the vendor for software used on a large-scale basis. A distinction is drawn between volume licences permitting a certain number of installations at the same time and the enterprise licence permitting comprehensive use on any number of devices within the company. Particularly complex software may also be acquired for a specific workstation.

The question which the responsible officer must answer is the extent to which the software being utilized in the company is sufficiently licensed as a variety of difference licenses may be deployed in practice. In addition, the optimized use of existing licences can help to cut costs as it is possible to determine the number of new licenses actually required. Spider Licence also uncovers this potential.