What is a click-wrap software license agreement?
A click-wrap software license agreement is one of the more common software licensing agreements that has developed and evolved in recent decades as mass produced software has entered the marketplace. Click-wrap agreements require people who buy software licenses to read and acknowledge that have read the complete software license agreement provided by the software author before they are allowed to install the software on their computers. Typically this acknowledgment is completed by checking a box or clicking an acknowledgment button on the computer screen.
How should your click-wrap software license agreement be structured?
In recent decades the mass production of software has created some logistical challenges for software companies as they try to license their work to millions of consumers.
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These challenges ended up leading to the creation of licensing agreements that are broadly written and in one way or another included with the software at the time of purchase, giving the software companies the ability to largely dictate the terms of the agreements and consumers very little recourse to reject or back out of terms of the agreements.
Unlike some other licenses, click-wrap software license agreements are designed to guarantee that clients acknowledge that they have read and agreed to the terms of the software agreement before they are allowed to install the software. These agreements are advantageous to companies because they take any ambiguity or doubt out of the picture, legally if a consumer installs the software they are both bound by the terms of the license and acknowledge they agree to the terms it contains.
Like other license types, clients typically do not see the license agreement until after they have gone ahead and purchased the software in question.
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Because of this most click-wrap agreements will typically still contain language allowing a client who has bought the software but disagrees with a term or condition to return the program within a reasonable amount of time for a full refund rather than install and make use of it.
Therefore, if these broad guidelines are complied with software companies are still free to craft a broad license agreement that will apply to all of the purchases of their software titles, saving the company the hassle and inconvenience of negotiating licensing contracts with each and every person or business who wishes to purchase their software.
Do you need help crafting your own click-wrap software license agreement?
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Do you need a click-wrap software license agreement for your software? Software Lawyer Mike Young helps companies by preparing and revising click-wrap software license agreements. To get started, set up a telephone consultation with him today.
