What rights are granted to users of a software which does not include an End User License Agreement?

Question

When installing a software which does not require the user to accept any license, what can the users legally do?
My guess would be they can legally do anything except claiming the software as their own production, but I am not sure.
Is there some kind of "default license"? Does the fact that the software is publicly available or not change anything? In the case the software was bought by the user, is it legal for him to distribute it free of charge?

Answer 1

Since this is a legal matter, the answer depends your local law and jurisprudence.

Most countries have signed the Berne Convention. It stipulates that anything copyrightable (such as software) is copyrighted by default, and that the recipient only has the rights that the copyright holder has granted. So by default the user can't do anything, not even use the software.

However it's not so simple, because the grant of rights doesn't have to be explicit. For example, if you purchase software in a box, you have the right to use the software, because using the software is the normal purpose of buying a copy. If a program is available for download, it is typically legitimate to presume that you may use it.

Other rights are less clear. For example, are you allowed to transfer the software to another person? Are you allowed to make multiple copies and transfer only some of them? Are you allowed to change the software for your own use? Are you allowed to redistribute modified versions? etc. The law typically doesn't go into this level of detail, although jurisprudence might.

Questions such as these are part of why most software comes with a license. The license may grant the user additional rights that can't be presumed (e.g. let the user distribute modified copies) or take away rights that could be presumed (e.g. only non-commercial use permitted).

Note that even a license doesn't solve everything, because some licenses contain clauses that are illegal in some jurisdictions. For example, clauses that require the user to sue the vendor in the vendor's favorite venue are void in some countries under consumer protection laws. In some countries, the law forbids a license to disallow reverse engineering for interoperability purposes.