Template Licenses

Since a software license is a specific contract between two parties, a specific licensor and a specific licensee, there are literally millions of such licenses in effect today. Fortunately, many of those licenses have very similar wording. Rather than negotiate one agreement at a time, many software companies use fill-in-the-blank agreements drafted by their attorneys , defining the licensor and licensee as, for example, Company X and Company Y, respectively, but otherwise the same. In such ways, large companies often license large proprietary software packages using standard terms and conditions. It would be a waste of time to redraft and negotiate every license agreement afresh.

For mass marketed software, software licenses are even more generalized, defining the licensor and licensee as Company X and Licensee, respectively, where Licensee is defined generally as "the person or company exercising rights under this license," or words to that effect.

Open source software licenses sometimes add yet another level of generality. They don't specifically name Company X as the licensor, instead defining Licensor as "the person or company granting rights under this license," or words to that effect. That can allow a single form of license to be used without modification for many licensors and many licensees . These generalized licenses are sometimes called license templates .

Often more than the names of the licensor and licensee are replaceable in the template. Other template fields can be the name of the software, the copyright notice, or even important matters such as jurisdiction and governing law.

At the end of the day, however, it is essential to tie together a specific piece of software, a specific licensor, and a specific licensee, because it is those three pieces of information that determine what license terms apply to the specific parties doing the licensing. A license template without the blanks filled in is not a complete license.

As I discuss various licenses in this book, I will identify the ways, if any, that they serve as license templates.