This has permitted teams located throughout the world to organize themselves and create a variety of software, that is often very advanced and capable of competing successfully with major commercial programs. All this without the logistic backup of publicity and in spite of the distrust created by these new production structures. It is most important to analyze the different judicial status governing software that is moreover applicable to other non-material resources.
Software falls under legislation concerning authors' rights.
In view of recent developments in computer science and how rapidly the useful life of software comes to an end, the only software in the public domain is that which has been explicitly placed there by the authors. This is in fact fairly rare. Traditional varieties of commercial software are aimed at limiting its reproduction and the conditions for its use. They do however demand the payment of a license for its use after a trial period. Above all, we have found that this type of license could be applied to executable software that is distributed without source code.