The Complete Explanation For Selling Or Giving Away Software

Along with the information on the different stages of rights and licensing.

Occam’s Razor

The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make

as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.

"All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best."

I was left a comment on this blog that I feel was un-fair and totally off the wall. Rather than get angry or feel depressed about the comment, I decided to use it for a tool.

Here is the comment that was made:

Person said...

“So you're giving away free something that you don't have copyright on? Some would consider that criminal.”

Let’s see, criminal, Wow! I doubt that this person even knows what the word means. He can’t even give a proper ID. He hides behind a wall so no-one can identify who he is. I have a word for that, it’s called coward.

Enough with the dig and lets get to the subject of this post. I have done my homework on this subject and would like to clarify what is legal when it comes to distribution of information products.

There are many types of software that are given away for free. I could go on about this subject all day but I want to be specific in my own market. What I am talking about is software with some kind of distribution or marketing rights, as long as the writer includes a document outlining what restrictions, if any, explaining what rights you have to that particular piece of software. This is a 100% legal form of distribution. You do not need to own copyright.

Let’s explain what type of marketing rights there are and what the restrictions are.

Resale Rights (RR)

Some products come with resale rights automatically; others give you the option to purchase the resale rights to that product separately - or for a slightly higher price. In both cases you have to purchase the product itself. Getting resale rights means that you will also generally receive the mini-site (order page and download page) so that you can set it up and resell the product on your own website or on a new domain name.

Master Resale Rights (MRR)

Master Resale Rights work just like Resale Rights, except that you also have the opportunity to sell the rights. So in addition to making direct product sales, you can also sell the resale rights package to other interested sellers.

Private Label Rights (PLR)

Private label rights are represented in a certificate or authorization that is attached with an "information item." The basics of private label rights is to permit people to transform, reorganize, change, or improve the elements of the said merchandise to go well with the buyer's personal desires.

Private label rights give you much more flexibility, allowing you to customize the product or the content of the product and use it in a variety of ways.

Private Label Master Resale Rights (PLMRR)

With PLMRR you get the best of both worlds

You might purchase PLR (private label rights) to articles, reports, e-books or any other type of content. You are given the “source code” or the raw product. You can add affiliate links, add to the content, edit the content, change the author’s name to your own, sell it, publish it in a completely different format, etc.

Public Domain Content

Content that is in the Public Domain is very similar to Private Label Rights. With both of these types of rights you can basically re-work the content source and use it to create an entirely new product - or simply publish it as your own. I myself choose to use this for information purpose only. I tend to formulate my own interpretation and document it accordingly. In this way I feel more comfortable in calling this my own work.

Anything published from 1923-1963 (and not renewed) is considered public domain material, meaning the copyright has not been renewed. Since there is no longer a copyright on that material, you may copy it or republish it - even for commercial use.

Giveaway Rights

E-books that have Giveaway Rights may be freely handed out to whom ever you wish. Products in this category can be used as incentives for email list building, as a bonus for another product or you can get creative by adding the freebie to a niche. There are many things you can do with software with giveaway rights.

I guess you can guess what purpose I use this software for. If you have read other entries in my blog you know that I am working on a long term project to determine what type of software is still usable and what is not.

To summarize this all up

There are many types of licenses that can be issued with information products and software tools where you don’t have to own the copyright to. If you take the time to read each items licensing agreement, you will find many advantages to using these products.

I have been selling these products for about 12 years now and I have never tired of it. The next time someone accuses someone of illegal activity at least I would hope that person has all the facts.

Look for the free weekly software tomorrow, download it, use it and comment on weather or not it is useful or not.

Free Software

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Free software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things. To make these acts possible, the human readable form of the program (called the source code) must be made available. The source code may be either accompanied by a software license saying that the copyright holder permits these acts (a free software licence), or be released into public domain, so that these rights automatically hold.