Copyright law, which considers software as a form of intellectual property, is vital to the health of the information marketplace. The College takes its responsibilities in this regard very seriously. The College maintains a Keyserver, a special network server to keep track of its networked software. The Keyserver system helps us insure that the number of individuals simultaneously using a particular software application does not exceed the number of College-owned licenses for the software. Even with such precautions, some vendors will not permit their software to be network-based.
Faculty members can often obtain classware from a vendor for a trial evaluation period.
Many vendors provide this service in the interest of reaching the academic market. If the software is to be used in many classes, affecting greater numbers of students, and has utility across departmental boundaries, Academic Computing can share the cost of the software with the departments involved. Historically, funding has not often been a problem for faculty who have proceeded seriously and methodically in acquiring software for support of classes. Be sure to contact your Academic Computing Resource Specialist as early in the process as is practical.