Issues in license agreements for numerical program libraries
W. S. Brown, K. W. Fong, B. Ford · ACM SIGNUM Newsletter · 1983
During the past decade, several organizations have developed high quality libraries of mathematical subroutines that are either portable or well supported on a variety of important computers. Although some progress has been made in persuading practitioners to use these libraries, it has become apparent that the licensing contracts and negotiations are a serious barrier to their acceptance. It is essential to have a contract to define the product and service being offered and the relationship between the producer and the customer. Yet, in more than a few cases, prospective customers have found it impossible to accept restrictions that the producers consider barely adequate to protect their most fundamental interests. In other cases, the bargaining may continue for months or even years before agreement is reached.