Pity the poor licence agreement. Sometimes it doesn't get
much respect from clients.
Recently one of my clients sent me a licence entitled
"legal boilerplate," which at least brought a smile to my
face. After all, don't all these licences just say the same
thing?
However, I have found this laissez-faire attitude
sometimes comes with a cost, usually in the form of a litigation
lawyer's letter demanding the client immediately cease using
the software in question, or pay additional licensing fees/upgrade
its software to account for the client's additional
usage/misuse or face the (dire) consequences.
The following three scenarios illustrate the pitfalls of
disconnection between vendors' standard paper and the way in
which licencees actually use their products.
