Our products are generally licensed on a per-installation basis. It doesn't make any difference how many visitors or how many users you are dealing with - what's generally important is how many copies of the software you've installed.

Typically our products have a single license price, a five license price and an Enterprise or Redistribution license. The terms Enterprise and Redistribution are often used interchangeably. Essentially an Enterprise license covers you for - either - unlimited use within your company - or - redistribution as part of one application.

If you are doing web development, note that a single license covers use on web sites under one of your domain names. Typically one single license goes with one web site, so the numbers generally match up without much thought. However if you need more than this, a five pack would cover five of your domain names, and an Enterprise license would cover all of them.

Scenario 1: Single Web Server

Suppose you have a web server with your web site on it. For this you need to install on one machine and so you need one single license.

It might be that you also want to install on other machines such as a staging server. In that case you would need other licenses for these machines. Do bear in mind that there is a 30 day free trial period to allow you to evaluate and this often comes in useful for short term development and testing.

Scenario 2: Multiple Web Servers

Suppose you have two web servers in a load balanced configuration. For this you need to install on two machines and so you need two licenses.

Scenario 3: Multiple Web Sites

Suppose you have a web server which serves two different web sites under two different domain names. One license covers one domain name, so you would need two licenses to cover your usage.

Later you decide to add another web site for a sibling company in your group. If you own the domain name then you can purchase a license registered to yourself. However if they own the domain name, you need to purchase a license registered to them. Feel welcome to make yourself the billing and delivery contact, but the licensee needs to be them.

Scenario 4: Server Farm

Suppose you have a large corporate web site and twenty web servers on which you wish to install ImageGlue. For this you need twenty licenses.

While you could purchase these licenses individually, it would probably be more efficient to purchase an Enterprise License which would cover you for all the machines in your organization.

Scenario 5: Docker / Kubernetes / Microservices

Suppose you have a microservice based solution using ABCpdf. You run your services in Docker. For this you need to have one license for each Docker instance which uses ABCpdf. You also need one license for each instance which consumes an ABCpdf based microservice.

In many situations it is not trivial to know how many instances are in use (eg with Kubernetes). In this situation you need an Enterprise License which will cover all your instances.

Please note that microservices must be internal to your systems as licenses are specific to you and for your use only. If you wish to expose services to other computers which are not yours, you would need to look at separate coverage for them or perhaps the SaaS options.

Scenario 6: SaaS, Web Service or Embedded Content

Web services and SaaS (Software as a Service) implementations are not the same as web sites. A web site is designed for people to use and is covered under Scenario 1.  Web services and SaaS sites are created to allow wider system integration across a network.

Because these services are designed for integration with other computers they fall into the category of exposing an API. Under the standard license you can only do this if, in addition to the computers providing the web service, all the computers that consume the service are also licensed.

If you are using a web service within your organization, typically you will require an Enterprise License so that all the computers that might use the service are covered.

In cases where you want to extend the use of ABCpdf .NET functionality outside your organization you need a SaaS subscription. This covers use of the software via a web API or system integration, across a network to another named organization.

A SaaS subscription provides similar rights to an Enterprise License but with the exception that the software cannot be installed on machines in this organization - it can only be accessed via a network API.

You need normal installation licenses for your computers, on which you can run ABCpdf .NET. In general you will require an Enterprise License which will cover all your machines. Then for each client with whom you integrate, you need an SaaS subscription.

SaaS orders should be placed in the name of your client not yourself. You can put yourself down as the billing and delivery contact but the licensee should be them not you. We only require a company name and country so feel welcome to use placeholders for the other information. If you require many subscriptions and managing them is difficult, we can organize a batch method for you.

You need to ensure that your integration is sufficiently well secured that you can know who is using it and that they are appropriately licensed.

Some examples may be useful...

Suppose you create a web site which allows you to create custom designs for T-shirts using ABCpdf .NET. Your client allows their customers to create designs there and then they periodically log on to download the designs to be printed or documents that have been created.

This is a web site used by people so it only requires that the web server that is using ABCpdf .NET is licensed.

However suppose that your client decides your domain name is diluting their brand and that they will host your web site in a frame on their site. At this point they are integrating your systems with theirs and thus they require a SaaS license.

Or suppose you start sending each new design to them so that they can automatically put them into a work queue. This is system integration and thus they require a SaaS license.

Or suppose you set up a RESTful web API so that they can submit client details to your systems. Again integration and again SaaS.

Or suppose you allow different document formats to be downloaded, controllable via a query string based parameter. This is an API so again SaaS.

Scenario 7: Redistributable Desktop Application

Suppose you have a desktop application called DocFlow 1.0. You want to redistribute ABCpdf as part of this application. You need a Redistribution license. This entitles you to embed ABCpdf invisibly within your application and redistribute it freely to an unlimited number of clients. It also covers you for any in-house development machines being used to construct your DocFlow application.

Please note that a Redistribution license applies only to local desktop applications. You cannot use use a Redistribution license to redistribute a web application or an application which exposes functionality beyond the desktop.

Suppose you release DocFlow 2.0. Because you will no longer be redistributing DocFlow 1.0 you can now use the Redistribution license for version 2.0.

Now you release SecureDoc 1.0 which also uses ABCpdf but is part of the DocFlow application suite. As long as SecureDoc is something that can only be purchased as part of the suite we would regard it as part of DocFlow - so it would be covered by your existing Redistribution license.

However SecureDoc 1.0 is so popular that you decide to split it off as a separate application with its own price tag. Because it has now become a separate application you will need a new Redistribution license to cover it.

Scenario 8: Development Product

Most people will not need this type of license. It's only relevant if you want to redistribute a software development system of some kind - something which will expose ABCpdf functionality to your clients via some kind of API. Something your clients will be writing code for.

Suppose you want to put together a grid control which includes export to PDF. Because this grid control is a development product it cannot be licensed under the terms of the standard license.

Or suppose you wanted to create an image processing component aimed at the Arabic market. You want to base this component around ImageGlue functionality but with documentation and support created by you in Arabic. Again because this component is a development product it cannot be licensed under the terms of the standard license.

In these situations you would need to look at an OEM agreement...

Does my license cover my subsidiaries or divisions?

A license is specific to you. It is registered to a particular company or individual - you choose which one when you purchase. You cannot sell, give, lend or otherwise transfer it to any other entity. You cannot change the registered owner.

Being the registered licensee provides you with more than just license to use. We provide support to the original registered owner. We provide reduced price upgrade licenses to the original registered owner. Both of these are provided at our discretion and again they cannot be transferred.

If your subsidiary or division is legally the same as you then it is covered. So if you have divisions of a company which are simply administrative sections headed by different managers then all of them are covered. However if your divisions or subsidiaries are separate companies then they are not covered.

If you register the software to a partnership then it is a partnership asset and the license is not usable by the partners. If you register the license to a partner within a partnership then it is usable only by them and not by their partners. Similarly if you register the license to a LLC then it is only usable by that LLC and direct employees of that LLC. In particular the fact that an LLC owns the license provides no rights to the owners or members of that LLC as these are different legal entities.

For example take a hypothetical bank - ABC Holdings - a company registered in the UK which owns ABC banks throughout the world. A license for ABC Holdings would cover the UK company but not any of the subsidiaries. ABC China would need its own license if it wanted to use the software. Likewise a license for ABC USA would not cover ABC Holdings or ABC China.

The only situation in which this is not true is if you hold a Group License. See the license agreement below for details of what this covers.

I am selling my company. What happens to my licenses?

A license is specific to you. It is registered to a particular company or individual - you choose which one when you purchase. You cannot sell, give, lend or otherwise transfer it to any other entity. You cannot change the registered owner.

Being the registered licensee provides you with more than just license to use. We provide support to the original registered owner. We provide reduced price upgrade licenses to the original registered owner. Both of these are provided at our discretion and again they cannot be transferred.

Selling your company makes no difference if the license is registered to the company. The company still exists. The fact that you are no longer the owner is not important. However the new owner doesn't gain any rights from this - they just own the company that has the rights. The rights are dependent on the existence of the company and are exercisable by that company only.

For example I develop an application for which I purchase a Redistribution License. I then sell my company to Microsoft. The company still has the rights to redistribute our software with the application and it continues to do so. At a later point in time Microsoft decides to dissolve the company and take the application in house. At that point in time Microsoft will need to purchase its own Redistribution License.

I am a developer/client. If I purchase licenses for a client/developer am I covered?

In short - yes - if you are working closely together.

Typically clients and developers purchase their own licences for their own use. They work independently and cover their own needs. This includes needs for software like Visual Studio and development products - of which our components may be one.

However if you are working very closely together you may wish to share licenses between yourselves. This is fine as long as we are notified at the point of purchase. This is how you do this.

On our order forms you can specify separate licensee, billing and delivery contacts. You need to ensure that on your order you put down the client as the licensee and the developer as the delivery contact (the billing contact can be either). This must be done at the point of order and cannot be changed after the event.

On this basis we are happy to view the developers as agents of the client and provide both of you with support. The client should provide us with formal notification of this relationship via a letter (using a standard form of words) on headed notepaper, sent to us either as a scan or via fax. This should be done within 60 days of purchase.

You may use purchased licenses on both developer machines (for development) and your client machines (for usage) but you must ensure you have sufficient licenses to cover both sides. For example a five license pack would be sufficient to cover two installations on your machines and three on your client machines. For the sake of clarity, five licenses in total - not five licenses each.

Please note that these special permissions are provided on a discretionary basis and as such they may be withdrawn at any time, for any reason, as determined in our sole discretion.

Does my license cover my consultants?

In short - yes.

The license covers use on machines under your control. So if you have a consultant working in-house on your computers then they can use licenses on those computers.

We provide support to you for licenses registered to you. We will provide support for in-house consultants but only if they contact us using an email address associated with your company.

Does my license cover my outsourced developer?

In short - yes - as long as you are prepared to be responsible for them.

A license is specific to you. It is registered to a particular company or individual - you choose which one when you purchase. You cannot sell, give, lend or otherwise transfer it to any other entity.

However, although outsourced developers are technically not allowed to use your licenses, you may have a very close relationship with a developer in which they are effectively acting as your employee. In this case, if you are happy to take responsibility for their use of the software, we are happy to regard them as an extension of your company.

Please ensure that your developer understands how many licenses you have and let them know that they will need to ask you to purchase extra licenses should they require more installations. You should provide us with formal notification of this relationship a letter (using a standard form of words) on headed notepaper, sent to us either as a scan or via fax.

We will provide support for your developer but only if they contact us using an official company email address.

Please note that these special permissions are provided on a discretionary basis and as such they may be withdrawn at any time, for any reason, as determined in our sole discretion.

Please note that employees of other companies are not covered and may not use your licenses. If you have outsourced to another company and their developers wish to use the software and obtain support then it is their responsibility to obtain their own licenses.

This is not something you should need to be concerned about. If you employ IBM to help you develop software they're not going to ask you to get them licenses for Visual Studio. Any professional software company should be allowing resources for the software they need to do their work.

Does my license cover my outsourced support staff working remotely on my machines?

Your license covers installation on your machines for your use. You means direct employees of your company, not employees of other companies.

Your outsourced staff require an appropriate number of licenses to cover their usage. This would typically be one for each person who might be requiring support for the software.

However do consider whether the "Does my license cover my outsourced developer?" exemption detailed above might apply to your situation.

How does the license work on cloud based services?

Despite the marketing hype, most cloud based services are actually fairly machine oriented and are priced on a per-machine basis. So you will know the maximum number of machines you want to scale to and you will be able to purchase an appropriate number of licenses to cover usage on these machines. This is the case for services such as Azure and Rackspace Cloud.

In a few cases, such as Amazon's AWS, you cannot know how many instances will be created. In this situation we are happy to accept an estimate based on $150 per month cost per instance. So if your cost per month was in the region of $200 you would need two licenses. If your usage then increased to $350 per month you would need to purchase an extra license.

Where is the actual agreement?

License agreements are specific to the software you install.

You will find the specific license agreement under the menu item for your software.

However the license agreement below is fairly typical.

General

The copyright and all intellectual property rights in this software ("the Software") are owned by WebSupergoo ("the Owner").

The term "you" refers to one legal entity. In the case of a purchased license the legal entity is the licensee named at the point of purchase. If the named licensee is not one legal entity then the license is void.

If you have purchased a Group License, the term "you" also refers to your subsidiaries. For the purposes of clarification, if you have not purchased a Group License then your subsidiaries are not covered by your license.

You may not load the Software into any computer or copy it without the license of the Owner. The Owner offers you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license on the terms of this Agreement. If you do not accept these terms you may within 30 days of purchase return the Software, its packaging and documentation unused and intact to your supplier together with proof of purchase for a full refund.

For the purposes of this Agreement, a computer is regarded as a single instance of an Operating System installed on a physical machine. So multiple instances of Operating Systems (e.g. Virtual Machines) installed on a physical machine are regarded as multiple computers.

For the purposes of this Agreement, your subsidiaries are corporations in which more than fifty percent of the voting power is owned directly or indirectly by you. In addition, partners within a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) are regarded as subsidiaries of the LLP.

Software as a Service "SaaS" licenses are non-installation licenses. They do not allow you to install the software on your computers. Instead they allow you to access functionality of the Software via another computer which has a licensed installation of the Software. All non-SaaS license types are installation licenses.

You are permitted:

1) provided you have purchased an installation license, to load the Software and use it on a single computer under your control, unless a multiple computer installation license has been purchased in which case the software may be used on any number of computers, up to a maximum total equal to the number of purchased licenses;

2) provided that you have purchased an Enterprise License or Group License, to load the Software and use it on any computer which is owned by you;

3) provided that you have purchased a Redistribution License and provided that your application is not a software development system as detailed in clause (b) below, to distribute the Software (without royalty) as part of a single distinct desktop application, unless multiple Redistribution Licenses have been purchased in which case the software may be distributed as part of a number of distinct applications, up to a maximum total equal to the number of purchased licenses;

4) to use the Software to provide functionality to one web site presented via one single domain name that you own, unless a multiple computer license has been purchased in which case the software may be used via any number of domain names that you own, up to a maximum total equal to the number of purchased licenses. If you have purchased a SaaS, Enterprise License or Group License the maximum total is unlimited;

5) to present such web site or sites to people, for interactive viewing only, using a web browser computer program;

You are not permitted:

a) to rent, lease, sub-license, loan, copy (except as expressly provided in this Agreement), modify, adapt, merge, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Software or its associated documentation or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software.

b) to distribute any part of the Software as part of any software development system (compiler or interpreter), or to expose any functionality of the Software via an application programming interface (API), or to present any functionality of the Software in a way that allows it to be used by another computer program that is not covered by this Agreement.

c) except as expressly provided in this Agreement, to use, reproduce or deal in the Software in any way.

d) to use the Software in any way which might violate the conditions of use for PDF set down by Adobe and detailed in the Adobe PDF Specification or in a way which is not in accordance with the accompanying documentation or does not take heed of advice given in the accompanying documentation.

e) to reveal or make public any license key that may have been provided to you.

f) to use the software in any way which might result in the Owner being legally obligated, either directly or indirectly, to a third party.

g) to present, or allow to be presented, the functionality of the Software via a domain name that is not owned by you. For the avoidance of doubt this includes; but is not limited to; web sites, redirects, frames embedded inside a page from a different domain and other similar embedded content.

Acceptance

You shall be deemed to have accepted the terms of this Agreement by loading the Software into any computer.

Term

This license is effective until terminated. You may terminate it by destroying all copies of the Software and any associated license keys and notifying us in writing of such. If you have a subscription based license it will automatically terminate on the expiration of the subscription. If you fail to abide by this Agreement this license will automatically terminate. On termination you agree to immediately destroy all copies of the Software and any associated license keys.

Ownership

The Owner shall at all times retain ownership of the Software and all subsequent copies thereof regardless of form. This Agreement applies to the grant of the license only and not to the contract of sale of the Software. You may not assign or transfer this Agreement or license, in whole or in part, without the Owners prior written consent.

This product may incorporate intellectual property owned by Microsoft Corporation. The terms and conditions upon which Microsoft is licensing such intellectual property may be found at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=52369.

You agree that your usage of the Software is a matter of public knowledge and that the Owner may use this fact, in combination with your trademarks and your logos, for marketing purposes. The Owner agrees to waive or desist from such use if requested in writing.

Warranties

1) The Owner warrants that the Software will perform substantially in accordance with its accompanying documentation (provided that the Software is properly used on the computer and with the operating system for which it was designed) and that the documentation correctly describes the operation of the Software in all material respects. If the Owner is notified of significant errors within 30 days of purchase (the "Warranty Period") it will take reasonable steps to correct such errors. If you do not feel that these steps are sufficient you may, at any point within the Warranty Period, terminate the Agreement in the manner detailed in the Term clause of this Agreement. Provided the termination date is within the Warranty Period the Owner will authorize a refund of the price of the Software. Such refund claims may not be made after the Warranty Period whether or not any error may have been previously reported.

3) THE ABOVE REPRESENT YOUR SOLE REMEDIES FOR ANY BREACH OF THE OWNER'S WARRANTIES, WHICH ARE GIVEN ONLY TO THE ORIGINAL REGISTERED USER.

4) THE EXPRESS TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT ARE IN LIEU OF ALL WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS, UNDERTAKINGS, TERMS AND OBLIGATIONS IMPLIED BY STATUTE, COMMON LAW, TRADE USAGE, COURSE OF DEALING OR OTHERWISE ALL OF WHICH ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

5) THE OWNER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED. YOU SHALL LOAD AND USE THE SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND IN NO EVENT WILL THE OWNER BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND (EXCEPT PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH RESULTING FROM THE OWNER'S NEGLIGENCE) INCLUDING LOST PROFITS OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL LOSS ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR FROM ERRORS OR DEFICIENCIES IN IT WHETHER CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED HEREIN.

6) ALL OTHER WARRANTIES ARE DISCLAIMED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, BY THE OWNER AND ALL OTHER PARTIES.

Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential or special damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. Also some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or limitations on how long an implied warranty may last, so the above limitations may not apply to you. To the extent permissible, any implied warranties are limited to ninety (90) days. This warranty gives you specific legal rights. You may have other rights which vary from state to state or jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For further warranty information, please contact the Owner.

Law

The validity, construction and performance of this Agreement, and all contractual and non-contractual matters arising out of it, shall be interpreted, and applied in accordance with their true meaning and intended effect independently of any system of national law, whether federal or state law. If any court finds the terms of this Agreement to be ambiguous or unclear, then in those circumstances only, the court may refer to and apply relevant US law as it deems appropriate.

In relation to any legal action or proceedings arising out of or in connection with this Agreement ("Proceedings"), each of the parties irrevocably submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts and waives any objection to Proceedings in such courts on the grounds of venue or on the grounds that Proceedings have been brought in an inappropriate forum.

This Agreement will not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the Uniform Law on the Formation of Agreements for the International Sale of Goods, or the Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods, or any law, rule or regulation or any jurisdiction based on any of the foregoing, and the application of all the foregoing is expressly excluded.

If any part of this Agreement is found void and unenforceable, it will not affect the validity of the balance of the Agreement, which shall remain valid and enforceable according to its terms.

You agree that the Software will not be shipped, transferred or exported into any country or used in any manner prohibited by the United States Export Administration Act or any other export laws, restrictions or regulations. This Agreement may only be modified in writing signed by authorized officers of the Owner.

* Our license is designed to cover all countries. However legal rights vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction so you may wish to discuss the interpretation of our standard license agreement with your legal counsel.