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Licensing Information
Enterprise Outfitters is committed to an "open" development philosophy. We think our software is good, but we will never be all things to all people. Our goal is to provide 1) software that, at the very least, is an excellent starting point, and 2) the tools for you to make the system do exactly what you want it to do. We have several levels of licenses that are designed to be flexible to the many different requirements in the marketplace, listed from the most basic to the most comprehensive:
Each of these license types is described in greater detail below.
Object Code License
An object code license entitles the licensee to use the machine-readable programs on their computer. This is a "standard" software license, and is suitable for users that do not need the ability to change the program functionality with in-house personnel. The number of users licensed represents simultaneous users (there can be more workstations, but only the maximum listed can be logged on at a time). All modules must be licensed for the same number of users.
Although you may not directly modify your system with only an object code license, you will still be able to modify it either through custom programming services from Enterprise Outfitters, or through similar services from third parties.
Please see the Software Rental section of the Services page for information about paying for object code licenses as they are used. Also, see the Support section of the Services page for information about requirements for object code licensees to receive support.
Source Code License
To acquire a source code license for any module, you must acquire an object code license for that same module. There are two types of source code licenses available:
Read-Only Source Code License
Read-only source code licenses are available for 25% of the cost of a full-use source code license, and can be upgraded to a normal source code license by paying the difference. A read-only source code license gives you the right to see, but not modify or distribute, the Tincup source code.
Full-Use Source Code License
A full-use source code license gives you the right to modify the source code for 1) your internal use, 2) distribution of modified object code to other object code licensees, and 3) distribution of modified source code to other source code licensees. It may also provide you with the necessary tools to integrate other products with Tincup. It does not give you the right to license either Tincup source code or object code to anyone (if you wish to do this, see the Royalty-Free License section). Source code licenses for "Common Libraries" are included in licenses for any source modules and for Code Generator object code.
Royalty-Free License
A royalty-free license is the same as owning the source code and any derivatives. It has no pre-requisite object or source code licensing. A royalty-free license provides you with a copy of the source code and non-exclusive ownership of it. In other words, you can do whatever you want with it, but so can we or any other royalty-free licensee. Any upgrades that we make to the product after the license is granted are not included in the license, but may be negotiated as a separate matter.
Our primary purpose in offering a royalty-free license is to induce developers to support our platform. We have always told end-users that it is important for them to be able to license source code. Otherwise, they run the risk of being forced to change systems when that may not be the best choice. The same is true for developers, but at a different level. Developers who tie themselves to a platform that they cannot control do so at their own risk. It is analogous to building a house on somebody else's land. It works fine until you are restricted from getting to your building, and the land is not for sale. We believe that other developers will be more inclined to develop for our platform if they know that they can "own" the underlying technology if they want to.
We realize that a royalty-free license is unusual. Many business software developers are afraid that someone might buy our code and go into competition with them. We think that if someone else can take our code and do a better job with it than we can, we deserve to lose market share to them. As long as we are fairly compensated for our investment in that code, we have no reason to complain. This also provides us with an additional incentive to get and keep our product excellent.
Another benefit of offering a royalty-free license is that it effectively puts a "cap" on the total amount that any party would be required to pay for an "unlimited" license or so-called "site" license. Companies fitting this category would typically be large enough to develop the code themselves, but might find a royalty-free license an economical way to avoid re-inventing the wheel.
There are two types of Royalty-Free licenses available:
- Module Data Schema Source Code. This allows you to write and own your own source code using data file formats that you already are using for day-to-day operations. You could conceivably "morph" an installation from our code to yours without being forced to start over from scratch on the data file formats.
- Module Source Code. This includes all source code for the module, including the data schema, all programs, and all libraries.