A license or licence in the sphere of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is a document, contract or agreement giving permission or the 'right' to a legally-definable entity to do something (such as manufacture a product or to use a service), or to apply something (such as a trademark), with the objective of achieving commercial gain. Typically, the party giving the permission is referred to as the 'licensor' and the party receiving the licence as the 'licencee' or 'licensee'. To be able to license a right, the licensor must have legal title or 'proprietary right' to it. The licensor typically offers the license with specific limitations, such as the period of use, the territory of use, etc. Both the licensor and the licensee have specific obligations which is expressed in the body of the agreement or is expressed in the law of the country or region or an international covenant which governs the performance of the agreement.

In law, the document is the evidence of a license to be distinguished from the underlying license which is the actual permission to an act in a way that would be otherwise unlawful. Originally in reference to property, a license was the right of an individual to enter upon the property of another to do an act that would have otherwise been considered illegal as a trespass, such as walking in the woods, hunting game or swimming in the lake. To be distinguished from a license coupled with an interest which is an irrevocable license that granted some interest in land or in a chattel. Such a license could be enforced with an injunction. Licenses can be gratuitous, revokable at will (sometimes called a bare license) or a type of bailment.

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KDE Momentum Continues with New Updates, Features
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:12:58 -0400
The KDE community has released KDE 3.5.10, a maintenance release for the KDE 3.5 series of the popular Linux desktop. Meanwhile, KDE developers continue work on bringing service-oriented computing to KDE, as well as a new Amarok media player and enhanced Qt support. KDE also has adopted the Free Software Foundation Europe's Fiduciary License Agreement. - The KDE Community has announced the availability of KDE 3.5.10, a maintenance release of KDE, the free desktop for GNU Linux and other Unix flavors. The KDE desktop is the system of choice for a broad array of Linux users. And although the KDE community released KDE 4.1 at the end of July, K...
Microsoft to Pay Novell $100M More for Linux Support
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:33:46 -0400
The pact between Microsoft and Novell, however, stirred up quite a controversy in the open-source community. - SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft plans to pay software maker Novell up to $100 million in additional subscription fees due to strong demand for Novell's open-source Linux software that partners with Microsoft's proprietary Windows software. The payment to be made by Nov. 1, announced by the companies ...
Microsoft, Novell Expand Interoperability Partnership
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:43:03 -0400
Microsoft and Novell expand their interoperability partnership with Microsoft buying up to $100 million in SUSE Linux certificates. The partnership helps enable SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Windows Server to work together in the datacenter. Moreover, the companies will continue to work collaboratively on virtualization, systems management, directory and identity federation, document format compatibility, accessibility technology, and the Moonlight multimedia framework. - Microsoft and Novell have announced an incremental investment in their partnership to promote interoperability between the SUSE Linux platform and Windows, with Microsoft pledging to purchase up to $100 million in certificates that customers can redeem for support. The goal of the Microsoft/Novell ...
Ubuntu Linux-Maker Canonical Joins Linux Foundation
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:00:41 -0400
Canonical, maker of the Ubuntu Linux Distribution, has joined the Linux Foundation. Canonical has advanced Linux on both the desktop and server and should be a good fit for the Linux Foundation, dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux. Canonical supports several other open-source projects including Bazaar, Storm and Upstart, and by joining, it should be able to support and benefit from other Linux community members in the Linux Foundation, including IBM, Novell, Oracle, Intel, Red Hat and VMware. - Canonical, maintainer of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, has joined the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux. By joining, Canonical can both contribute to and benefit from the foundation that features many of the Linux community's leading comp...
LinuxWorld 2008: Enthusiasm Up, Attendance Down
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:53:18 -0400
The shakiness of the macroeconomy plus general problems with travel arrangements caused many usual attendees to sit out this year's LinuxWorld Conference Expo in San Francisco. More than 7,500 people signed up, but about half that actually showed up, some estimates said. But there was no lack of enthusiasm for new product releases especially in the data center, mobile and cloud computing sectors. Those who stayed home missed a lot of good new products and plenty of good networking opportunities. - It was apparent early on that this was not going to be a sold-out LinuxWorld Conference amp; Expo at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Malaise in the macroeconomy and general travel difficulties were generally thought to be the culprits. Only 7,500 people registered, and perhaps half that ...
Microsoft Site CodePlex Turns 2
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:15:03 -0400
Microsoft's CodePlex celebrates its second year of helping .Net developers dabble in open source. The Microsoft open-source site enables developers to contribute to and share code for such projects as IronPython. - The Microsoft community development site, CodePlex, celebrated its second anniversary in early August. On Aug. 6, S. quot;Soma quot; Somasegar, senior vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division, blogged that CodePlex had reached its second year of operation as a Microsoft-run hosting site. T...

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