Computer Viruses

COMPARISON TABLE

SOFTWARE LICENSING

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

FREE SOFTWARE

• Available at minimal cost

• No spying on users

• Auditability

• Provides better security

• Learning curve

• Equivalent programs

• More technical ability needed

• Not all hardware

compatible

COPYLEFT

• Protect content creators’ own rights to work

• Copy left is considered the only mechanism able to compete with monopolistic firms that rely on financial exploitation of copyright, trademark and patent laws.

• Can lead to confusion about the user what is legal to use and what is not.

• Leads to the abusive use of the product,

PUBLIC DOMAIN

SOFTWARE

• can be copied and modified

• Not covered by copyright.

SEMI-FREE

SOFTWARE

• It can de modified

• You can distriubte

• It´s not free

• It allows the user to copy

FREEWARE

• Is free

Is covered by copyright

• You can’t sell freeware software and modified software must be freeware.

SHAREWARE

• Is free

• Can be copied and is covered by copyright.

• Cannot be modified, and it may be either a cut down

or temporary version.

PROPIETARY

SOFTWARE

• The software offers a stable system support if it fails or malfunction.

• The software is safe and guaranteed to be safe from dubious threats like programming bugs and viruses thus providing ease of mind for the user.

• Users need to spend a long time downloading and installing security patches to fix bugs announced by the manufacturer.

• Any improvements

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