Which license to choose for closed-source freeware ?

Question

I've few closed-source freeware programs which i distribute from my site. But some sites like qarchive and other freeware-download sites hijack my software and keep it on their servers. (They steal my traffic from website and earn by CPM/CPC advertisers) It's like parasite on my hard work. I want to restrict that. In order to do that i want to attach license to my freeware.

I'm looking for a License which grants user to download and use the freeware, but no modification. Also site distribution without permission should not be allowed. Which license to choose in this case ?

Which is the right license in this case ? Or It qualifies for any custom license ? Any suggestions and opinion on this are welcomed.

Answer 1

IANAL but Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial might suit you. I don't see the point of adding "No Derivative" if you are just distributing a binary. You can choose and mix your own license at the Creative Commons (sorry, no link due SO not trusting me).

And even if you choose to re-release your software under a stricter license, the old one still apply for versions distributed earlier.

Answer 2

Depending on your local laws they aren't allowed to redistribute your software anyway, adding a license won't change anything.

Licences can only grant permissions, not deny rights.

Answer 3

It doesn't make any difference what kind of license you choose for your freeware. Pirates and crackerz will steal it no matter what. The license might give them a good belly laugh, but nothing more. Seeking legal action against them might be effective but probably not, since it would cost you some serious money and at best would cause them to shut their operation down and re-open it with a new name.

Answer 4

You can use any text as your license agreement. There's no requirement for it to be written with use of long all-caps sentences full of words, that no one understands without reading three times. You want your soft to be not redistributable?--just add the restriction as separate point. It's important to divide your license into points, because, for example, in Russia a point that forbids redistribution is void, but the other points still have effect.

A good solution would be to copy-pase a license of any other software with similar terms. Of course, if you find it. It may be very hard to find such software, because it hides into the depths of badly-designed sites of their greedy authors. We can't give you a link, because no one knows about such software: it's not published on software sites like qarchive, where users can rate software, categorize it and find soft that suits their needs.

So you'll have very hard time looking for non-redistributable freeware. I wish you luck.

Answer 5

Please read this answer in its entirety before reacting.

If your goal with this approach is to have relatively hassle free marketing for your services, your approach is untenable. You're going to deal with these headaches no matter what kind of license you have.

The download sites aren't going to read your license for the most part. They count on your apathy in enforcing your copyright , not just your license. That being said, here's some things to do:

1. Report the links. Contact the ad networks themselves that appear on these pages (i.e. Google) and report the copyright violation. Google takes these very seriously, so do most other (reputable) ad networks.
2. Talk with an IP attorney, really look into the cost of getting your own license drafted. Its as cheap as a few hundred bucks. The same attorney can then help you to enforce it, if needed.
3. Have your program check for periodic updates, which takes people to a download link on your site should one be available. That helps put what the download sites are doing to work for you rather than against you.

Big names have this issue too, just not to the extent that you have it. They employ people to look for this and send take down letters on the spot. Again, looking at your business model, you simply do not have time for that.

Really, really, really try to find a way to make this a positive thing, complaining to the ad networks as a last resort. Try to find more ways to plug your site in the app itself without annoying users.