What IS Legal
Software Licensing compliance is a difficult topic to explain. Every software vendor has a variety of license agreements to cover equally numerous situations. Understanding the many licenses, "legalese", and conditions can make your head spin. The University of Michigan's Standard Practice Guide has policies against the illegal use of software but how do you know what is legal use. That is were SWL comes in.
 
LSA Provided Software
SWL takes the worry out of Software License Compliance by offering software to faculty and staff in LSA that is legal for every LSA workstation under specified conditions. Please feel free to explore the SWL website and the offering of LSA software. Rest assured that any software offered on this website is legal and is offered to faculty and staff in compliance with vendor licensing agreements.
But what about software not offered by LSA?
For software to be "legal" in LSA two steps must be completed.  First, your department or the SWL Team needs to posses one of the following:
Why does SWL need this information?
SWL is responsible for all LSA workstations. If an audit is requested of LSA by a software vendor then SWL must provide supporting documentation of compliance.
  • Receipt of purchase
  • Original, Official license agreement
  • Statement of purchase from the reseller
Without any of these proofs of purchase your software may not be compliant and thus not legal. Please contact us immediately if you feel you may not be compliant. If you do have one or all of these proofs of purchase please make sure that either your department or SWL Team retains a copy. 

The final step in license compliance is to read and follow the terms of the license agreement. When you purchase a piece of software, you purchase not the software itself but a license to use it under specified conditions. The license explains how, when, and where you are legally allowed to use the software. These are license terms and conditions that you are expected to follow whether you purchase a shrink-wrapped package from a store or whether you participate in one of the University's license agreements. As stated before these rules can be confusing. Feel free to contact us to assist in explaining any licensing issues you may have.


University of Michigan and Software Policy

The University of Michigan has official software policies and guidelines in the Standard Practice Guide (SPG). Please follow this link for more information - SPG.




Copyright © 2000, The Regents of the University of Michigan. All rights reserved.  The content on this page is not guaranteed to be accurate. You should contact SWL to confirm anything that may be of importantance to your organizational unit.