EULA clarification regarding use of personal license in company

[bananshar]

Hello, I've been asked by employee in my company about legality of use of Affinity purchased privately. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor have I studied law.

Employee would like to use Affinity on company computer for commercial use on one of our products. Computers are company owned, however, the employee in question would be the only one making use of the software - thus I think it wouldn't be in violation of Your Rights and Permitted Use p.3 (i).

Quote

Commercial use is permitted but only use by you and not by any other users of any Windows Computers that you own or control.

License wouldn't be transferred to company either, the employee would remain sole licensee. The phrasing "Windows Computers that you own or control" seem ambiguous to me, because as company's property the computer isn't in employee's full control but rather is its operator. Computer is in domain environment, and other people are potentially able to violate this paragraph. We can make sure this doesn't happen however.

There's also point 4.b that prohibits:

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rent, lend, lease, sell, supply, transfer or distribute, transfer, redistribute or sublicense

I'm not sure about the legal meaning of it, but does such practice constitute supplying the company with a license?

Local laws permit such practices to the best of my knowledge, there's some shenanigans on financial side, but that's beside the topic.

TL;DR: Is employee permitted to use Affinity purchased with individual license while doing commercial work for company that's hired him?

Edited March 3, 2023 by bananshar
accidental deletion before posting

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, bananshar said:

TL;DR: Is employee permitted to use Affinity purchased with individual license while doing commercial work for company that's hired him?

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

On a computer owned by the user, certainly. (But note that I'm not a Serif staff member, nor a lawyer either  )

As you've noted, the gray area is whether the employee is allowed to install their personally-owned license on your computer. I've never seen a definitive answer. My guess would be that if the company specifically gives the employee permission to install it on a company computer, that's enough "control" to satisfy the "or control" part of that EULA term. 

Maybe someone from Serif will be able to comment. 

 

[Alfred]

13 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

My guess would be that if the company specifically gives the employee permission to install it on a company computer, that's enough "control" to satisfy the "or control" part of that EULA term.

My guess would be that the company (rather than the employee) would still have “control” of the computer. I don’t see how the app could be used for company business unless the company purchases its own licence.

I believe the “or control” part of the EULA is there to cover the scenario where the company’s computers are leased instead of being owned outright.

[Lee D]

From my understanding and confirming which a couple more staff members in the office is that @walt.farrell interpretation is correct/valid. If the company gives an employee permission for that employee to install software on a company computer. This satisfies the "control" part of the EULA. 

[bananshar]

Thanks a bunch! That's a load off of my back!

[OccasionalDesigner]

Hi all.

I live in Quebec, Canada. I'm not a lawyer but I know some.

EULA say that, from the moment you install the software on a computer, the owner of the computer defines which category (Individual, Business, Education) is to be considered so :

If I, myself, own one or many computers, one computer at a time, one version of the software at a time, with the same user each time, I can install the software on those computers and it respect the Individual EULA. If my wife uses the software on those computers and uses her own credentials, I need to buy another licence for her like if she would need to work on her own computers.

If your employee would work from home and install the software on his own computer, it could be another solution to respect to EULA but he would still be controlled by his employer, the software wouldn't be on the company computer and control would be on the individual, not the computer or the software.

That could work.

If a company own a computer and someone install the software on one computer, it is considered "commercial use" not just because of the control the company has on the use of the software but also the lack of control from Serif Software to know if the software is used by one or many users so you need to pay a "Business" licence, according to my comprehension.

If that doesn't make sense to you, please feel free to get back to me because I'm in a decision making between Affinity and other software and I'm starting a new career as a content creater so it is important for me to be sure that I can use that software the way it should be, in respect to the EULA.

[Brian_J]

@OccasionalDesigner See How many devices can I install Affinity apps on? on the Serif FAQ page for license info:

https://affinity.serif.com/affinity-2-faq/

[SFurniss]

Work devices would be classed as under your company's control I'm afraid. Your license allows you to install on as many devices as you personally control. If you are wanting to install on devices controlled by your company, you would need a separate license for that.

[Alfred]

41 minutes ago, SFurniss said:

If you are wanting to install on devices controlled by your company, you would need a separate license for that.

If you own the company, any devices owned by the company are ultimately owned by you, so I would have thought that your licence should cover your use of the software on those devices. If, on the other hand, you are merely an employee of the company, the employing company is the entity that would need the separate licence.