Tim, Firstly, you state "If I have a valid license", and then turn right around and state "registered to the company I work for".
I take that to mean that the company that you work for is the purchaser and licensee of the Protel software in question. In other words, your employer, and not you yourself, is the owner of the Protel license. That means that from an ethical and legal standpoint, your employer, and not you, is the one that must decide what the Protel license must be used for. Assuming that your employer has a single seat license, it is up to him as to who uses that single seat, and additionally, where that single seat is used. I am assuming that this goes a little further, and that you are really asking is whether or not you can use a copy of your employers single seat license of Protel which might be installed on your own computer at home, to do work on that single seat for a third party. This needs to be handled as two different issues: 1.) Your employer has the ethical and legal right to install and use his copy of Protel on any computer system or network that he so chooses, and in any location that he so chooses, providing that it is only operated by one person at a time, which is the limit of his single seat license. Notwithstanding what the end user license agreement may state, this would extend to your employer asking you to install it on your own computer system at your own home, so that you could do work for him in the evenings or on the weekends, or even "work at home", all providing that amongst all of the computers that it may be installed on, it was only operated by one person overall at any given time, again which is the limit of his single seat license. Your employer, as the licensee, can do this, but you, as an employee, have absolutely no right whatsoever, to install a copy of the software on your own computer at home, unless your employer asks you to do so. Please note that from a legal perspective your employer must be in control of the license, and of the computers that it is installed on, and the software must be removed once you cease to be in the employ of your employer, or at any other time that your employer may demand. In reality here, so long as your employer is in control of the license, and so long as no more copies of the licensed software are operated at the same time than allowed by the license, a court of law would find that there was virtually no difference in whether the software was used in the next room, or the next city 37 miles away. 2.) Now to what I believe might be the real issue. Can you use your employers Protel software license, to perform work for someone else. This is entirely up to your employer, who is the licensee of the software. Both legally and ethically, you cannot use it for any reason whatsoever without the full knowledge and consent of your employer. Would your employer allow you to use his licensed copy of Protel on his own computer system where you work every day, either during lunch of after hours, to do work for some other company? Your employer is the person who owns the license, and as such, he has the right to use it in any fashion that he so chooses, which includes allowing you as his employee to use it in any fashion that he (your employer) so chooses, as long as the usage remains within the scope of the license. Can your employer allow you to use it on your own computer at home to do whatever work for whatever reason that he approves of? Again the answer would be the same as above, so long as your employer is in control of the license, and so long as no more copies of the licensed software are operated at the same time than allowed by the license, It would be acceptable. Now to the bottom line. Is it legal or ethical for you to install a copy of your employers licensed Protel software on your own computer at home without your employers express knowledge and consent? ABSOLUTELY NOT ! ! ! Is it legal or ethical for you to do any work of any kind either for yourself or someone else or some other company on your employers licensed Protel software either on his computer at your place of employment or on your own computer at home without your employers express knowledge and consent? ABSOLUTELY NOT ! ! ! It's really very simple, the short answer is no. At the risk of possibly being a little bit too presumptious, I will now say that you should do what is legally and ethically the right thing to do and take Protel off of your computer at home. JaMi Smith ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Fifield" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Protel EDA Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 12:26 PM Subject: [PEDA] License Legalities > If I have a valid license of Protel registered to the company I work for am > I legally allowed to use it for work that I'm doing for another company? > Both companies are in a different field of electronics and would not be > competing in any way. > > > Tim Fifield > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
