However, on the other side of that coin, various web apps, online fitness programs and supplements promise to make you extremely healthy and fit but in reality, they’re misleading and rarely ever work.

Unfortunately, in terms of fitness and physique, there is little one can do except eat right and exercise correctly in order to reach a point they’re comfortable with.

There are some great free online fitness program available which are trustworthy and don’t aim to sell you anything. I want to take a look at three fitness programs which have proven very popular with millions of people all over the world.

One Hundred Push-Ups, Sit-Ups Etc…

This series of free online fitness program have been very popular and has expanded in recent months. When the first program launched a while back we did an article on it here. Since then, numerous other programs have become available so that everything from push-ups to sit-ups to squats to chin-ups are covered.

They all work on the same principle and that is to gradually increase the reps over a period of weeks until you have reached the goal of the program. They also give you an initial test to determine your current strength and stamina. Based upon the results of this you’ll start on a certain week and work your way up.

An iPhone app is also available to keep track of your progress but you can do this only using the websites just as well.

Couch to 5K

This program became something of an Internet Meme when it was first released and is still very popular given its success in transforming couch potatoes into runners.

Once again, this program works on a chart which you are to work your way up over a period of time. Initially, it comprises of a certain amount of time jogging followed by a certain amount of time walking. The jogging is gradually increased over time as you become more fit until the end of the program, at which point you should be able to run 5K (or half an hour).

Because free online fitness program became so popular so quick, there are numerous websites which specialise in it instead of just one. I recommend this particular site because of the wealth of information on there compared to the others. Firstly, it’s regularly updated with articles related to the program on every subject such as nutrition, running gear and the most important of all; motivation.

They also have a great chart which you can print out which details the running schedule with plenty of tips.

Zero To One Mile – Swimming

Running and strength exercises aren’t for everyone though. Swimming, widely considered to be the best exercise because it gives you a full body work out, is a favourite of many people trying to get in shape.

Swimming just one length of a pool is a challenge for some people so one mile might seem light years away. However, with the Zero to One Mile program you could achieve that target in a few weeks.

The website, however basic, is packed with valuable information for swimmers including the essential chart to give you targets as well as track your goals. Along with a new Facebook support group this program also features a lot of information for adults learning how to swim for the first time and further challenges once you reach the one mile target.

Obviously, as with any fitness program, it’s the motivation and proper exercise that counts, not new workout machines or dietary supplements. All you need to get fit is a good training schedule and your body. The above programs should get you well on your way to achieving that.

Is there another free online fitness program that you prefer?  If so, let us know about it in the comments.

Image Credit: Brass n’Roll

I guess thats why so many bloggers trust it to get the job done on an everyday basis, as well as keep their site looking great with themes and widgets.

That being said, there are times when we need specific features and that’s where plugins come in. Many of us will use plugins to make our blog comparable with another service such as a social network or to improve server response time, but today I want to take a look at three cool WordPress plugins I use which just make blogging easier and more enjoyable.

Theme My LogIn

The WP login page hasn’t changed much since the platform was first released so it’s cool to be able to jazz it up with this plugin.

What it does is simple: it transforms your login page into a page of your blog when wp-admin redirects you to the login page. The login area is displayed where your post would normally be with the rest of your blog being the same. You can still use the normal login page by going directly to wp-login.php.

While this doesn’t make blogging any easier per se, it does give you a little bit of individuality and fun.

Future Calendar

This plugin will be of great benefit to those who post on their blogs every few days or so and like to keep their posting pattern regular. Obviously, if you own a bigger blog then some of the point is lost because all of the days will be highlighted but it might still be useful to you to decide which day a post would be best suited to.

It’s a basic plugin but one of my favorites. A small calandar will appear once the plugin is installed, to the right of your posting area. The days when you have post scheduled for the remainder of the month will be highlighted in green as seen above. The current day is highlighted and bolded.

I find this really handy when posting as I just have to glance at the calandar to check my frequency and to decide what day/date would be the best for the post to go live.

Photo Dropper

A picture is worth a thousand words and like most bloggers, I like to start off an article with a big, high-quality picture that really captures the theme of the article. The trouble is that when posting creative commons images you have to source the picture on a separate website such as Flickr and post an attribution link.

Photodropper however, creates a small icon in the post editor as shown. When clicked a search bar will appear. This enables you to search Flickr for CC images. When you click on one of the results and select the appropriate size (the largest being 500px), the image is placed in the post and an attractive link along with the Creative Commons logo is placed below.

I think this makes the post look very professional and also saves you a lot of hassle.

So there you have it. Three cool WordPress plugins to make your blogging life a little easier. Do you use any interesting plugin which helps you blog or just to liven things up?

Image Attribution: Pantagrapher

The “˜professional’ option would be to get to grips with Photoshop and spend your time setting up the various variables to get your logo or name looking just right. Not to mention having to download new fonts and effects to create the image.

Well CoolText, a free online graphics generator, allows you to create thousands upon thousands of different text images, logos and even buttons to form your own cool name designs.

Their main service, and the one most relevant to this article, is the Text/Logo service which enables you to choose from hundreds of logo styles and subsequently thousands of different fonts.

The first step in creating cool name designs or logos is selecting what style you want. Note that the colours, fonts and sizes can be altered later. This is merely selecting roughly how the finished image will look and what animations, if any, it will have. Below you can see some of the choices you will have on the site.

For the purpose of this demonstration, I decided to go with “˜Glossy’. Once you select what style you want, you’re brought to the “˜Design Your Logo’ page. It asks you for basic things such as what exact text you want in your logo, text size and of course, the font.

CoolText has an excellent motley crew of fonts ranging from you basic word processor fonts to the artistic.

Some are even customised to resemble the fonts used in iconic logos such as NASA and Chicken Scratch. Once you select your font, you can continue to alter the text gradient. This is the colours used in certain areas of the logo. You can change the different gradients by clicking on different areas of the colour gradient bar, an example of which you can see below.

After this, you can select the shadow’s offset (if there is one in that particular logo style) and can select the background colour or image.

The final step is to select what file format to save it as. If you’re going to use it as a logo or image on a social networking site then I suggest PNG. However, if you want to integrate the image into Photoshop or indeed just edit it further in Photoshop, then save it as PSD with layers.

A final cool feature about this web app is that you can download all of CoolText’s fonts and logo styles to use in Photoshop by clicking “˜Fonts’ along the top menu bar. This is great if you’re an experienced Photoshop user but need some extra fonts for free. There are over 1,200 available so take your pick!

Also, take note that CoolText will only host your image for short period of time so you will have to either upload it to your own web server or a free image hosting service in order to keep it online.

So what cool name designs and logos did you create?

Unfortunately, even though the Internet is worldwide there is no real organisation which will deal with small, individual cases at an international level. That is left to national and local levels.

In this article I will show you some of the most popular agencies to contact depending on your location and other avenues to explore when you report email fraud.

United States Of America & Canada

Given its population, hi-tech lifestyle and global position, the US and its citizens are often the prime targets for scammers and fraudsters, often based far away in countries such as Nigeria, which has become popular for its email scams as discussed in my previous post.

The FBI and FTC are two agencies you should forward any suspicious emails onto which you think may be frauds or just threats to security in general. Uce@ftc.gov is the email address. The FBI also runs a collaboration with the National White Collar Crime Centre and the Bureau of Justice Assistance to form IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Centre). You can report Internet and email fraud there.

In Canada, concerned users can contact the Better Business Bureau (for corporate claims) and their local police for other scams.

Europe

Europe is quite similar as a target for scammers as again, it’s wealthy, powerful and home to dozens of different police districts and nations which makes stopping scams even harder. Each nation has different agencies which you can contact. Some of the most popular are listed below.

• Norway ““ Police Economic Crime Unit
• UK ““ Office of Fair Trading and Metropolitan Police
• Ireland ““ Garda Siochána Bureau of Fraud Investigation
• Germany ““ Daten Schutz
• Netherlands ““ Spam Vrij
• Belgium ““ FGov.be
• Denmark ““ Fs.dk

For all other countries without specific fraud investigative units (or those I couldn’t find due to the language barrier) you should log on to your nation’s police force website for more information.

Asia-Pacific

There are also plenty of Chinese email scams circulating such as fake online stores which send out catalogue emails as well as some 419 scams. Here are a list of some of the bigger countries in the region as well as information about where to forward or report email fraud.

China ““ Anti-Spam Organisation or CCert

Hong Kong ““ OFTA

South Korea ““ Spam Cop and Korean Response Centre

Malaysia -  Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission

New Zealand ““ NZ Serious Fraud Commission and Commerce Commission

Australia ““ Australia Scamwatch and ACMA SPAM Reporting Service

Alternative Reporting Methods

There are two other ways in which you can report spam and fraudulent emails in order to help win the battle against these scammers. Seeing as many scams try to affiliate themselves with, or impersonate a company, it’s wise to forward any such emails to the company in question.

Most large businesses will have special divisions set up to deal with these kinds of claims and will have information available on their website. A good example is PayPal who frequently have fraudsters impersonating them in emails and as such have set up an anti-fraud department.

Also, some scammers will target banks or government institutions. I remember one case recently in my country when a fraudulent email circulated impersonating the national tax revenue office trying to scam people. These kinds of emails should be reported at once as they can often rob businesses of sensitive information or even rob their money.

Another way of reporting email fraud is to inform the scammers ISP or email provider what their services are being used for. Seeing as many email providers (especially Hotmail and Gmail) have been targeted by hackers and scammers themselves, they don’t take lightly to people or “˜bots’ using hoax accounts set up on their servers to circulate fraud emails. You will be able to find exact contact details for their provider on their website (here’s Gmail’s).

Until we have cleansed the world of scammers, we must rely on PC security programs and our own wits to stop ourselves being scammed. For more information on how these reported emails are dealt with on an international level, I recommend checking out this section on Interpol’s website.

How have you been able to deal with email spam?  Do you just ignore it or do you report it?  What experiences have you had when you reported it?  Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: RosenGrant, Brent_Nashville

Often, diagnosing illnesses and symptoms can be extremely simple. Learning more about the condition that you have educates you, so you can make an informed decision on whether or not you should then seek medical attention or deal with it yourself.

Of course, medical advice is something you want from a trusted source. And the Internet is often presumed to be a bad source for health apps and information. However, there are quite a few websites out there owned and run by healthcare professional providing free medical advice and answers to readers questions. Here are three great sites where you can have your medical questions answered for free.

Editor’s note: MakeUseOf is in no way advocating self-diagnosis and/or treatment. This is merely a source of information. If you require medical attention, do not hesitate to visit a healthcare professional.

Medical Questions Answered Free – Ask Medical Doctor

This is a simple site with thousands of answered questions already in its database. It’s really simple to use and is held in a very high esteem by its users. Along the top of the site there are various categories and links to the doctors’ profiles and recent questions. There is also a ticker tape running across the top of the screen with numerous conditions including everything from Autism to Cancer and STIs.

The homepage consists mainly of this question form which you enter your medical query into. The response time varies much in the same way replies to comments on a blog vary. Whenever there is a doctor on call, then your questions should be answered. 24 hours would be the maximum you’ll be waiting.

However, you may not need to even “˜ask’ your question. As I mentioned above, there are thousands already answered so performing a search or sifting through one of the categories along the top of the site may be quicker.

Med Help

MedHelp is a form of medical social network with over 9 million visitors per month. The community is made up of users and experts (experts are clearly marked). Registration is required to partake in the community. I think this is to keep you coming back and hopefully spread your own knowledge.

What I liked most about this site was that the community answers questions as well as experts. Obviously, the community could only answer general knowledge questions from their own experience. But with such a large amount of users there is bound to be someone there who went through it before you did. There is also user forums and dictionaries to look up medical jargon (this is very useful) and profiles of various health centres and treatments.

The community on MedHelp are supportive, mature and above all else, backed up by experts in their fields who keep the conversation accurate and dole out excellent advice to those who need it.

The site also offers numerous tools and web apps to help you keep fit and track recovery data. Ryan profiled those here a few months back.

MD Advice

This website is also great for having your medical questions answered. When you first log onto the site, click “˜Ask and Expert’ in the left-hand column. This will bring you to the a page where you can submit your question to the doctor and receive a reply via email.

There is also a vast library of previously answered questions, like the sites above. They also have loads of articles and information on the website such as “˜Drug Information’ and the “˜Health Library’.

The Health Library is the reason I chose MD Advice. It’s packed with loads of common injuries and illnesses such as sports injuries and pregnancy along with health advice and nutrition. Furthermore, there is a community message board and also live chat rooms for both the expert and the members.

Always remember though, information found on the Internet should only be secondary to that of a doctor who you can meet in person and have checks done. For medical emergencies and extreme cases with a sense of urgency, it’s best to visit your doctor.

So there you go. Before you rush off to the doctors next time, check to see if your symptoms are something which can be treated at home. Which online medical services do you use?

Image Attribution: Deadstar 2.0

It’s in the price. Apple don’t allow their products to be manufactured by third parties like Microsoft do. That way, they have all of the costs involved in creating the product but also have all of the profit.

There are two ways to overcome the price obstacle to find cheap Mac computers. Either bite the bullet and cough up the price for a computer with the same specs as a PC but a at double the price or use the Internet to save yourself a packet and have a shiny (new) Mac delivered to your door.

North America

Official Apple Store

Whilst the official Apple Store is a good place to buy brand new Macs, you can also save hundreds of dollars by buying refurbished and cheap Mac computers from them as well. I did some research and found some models such as a 3.06GHz 21″ iMac for just $1000. That means you save over $200 on the normal price. Savings on MacBooks are even better, some with up to 30% off the retail price.

Until recently, buying “˜refurbished’ computers over the Internet was dodgy to say the least. This was mainly because different people had different perceptions of the word “˜refurbish’. For some, it was wiping the hard drive and shipping it off. For others, it was replacing all worn and damaged parts, wiping the hard drive, updating all the software and sending you a pristine laptop. Thankfully, the latter has become the norm now and because these are from Apple, you know you’re in good hands.

Power Max

Power Max, an authorised Apple reseller, have become very well known for selling top quality Macs including both new and used conditions. Delivery is free for any item over $100. They also have a customer support line which is comforting.

Their prices are quite good, especially among the used computers. You could land yourself a 17″ Intel for as little as $800. You can also buy components separately if you just need a second monitor or a new keyboard.

I haven’t gotten to the best bit yet. You can save even more money, potentially hundreds of dollars, by trading in old Mac products such as laptops, iMacs, iPods and the like. All you have to do is fill in a form to get a quote back from their team.

Your old computer is then either refurbished and resold or recycled. What’s more, if you trade in your old PC you don’t get charged tax on your next purchase. You can also trade in your old Mac and have funds credited to your account if you don’t want to make a purchase immediately.

Another great site where you can find great Mac deals taken from numerous websites is DealMac. They collect deals and saving on Macs and Mac accessories and post them to their site. It is updated numerous times every day.

Europe

Second Chance PC

This site, which is based in the UK offers new, used and refurblished, cheap Mac computers to the European market. Advantages of ordering your new Mac from within the EU (if you live here, that is) is the free trade. This means you won’t be charged import duty as you would if found buying tech goods from the US or any other country. The postage is also considerably cheaper and there will be no need to change things such as power adapters and so on.

They have a good selection of computers available ranging from the very new to the very old. You can pick up a Mac which is a couple of years old for just a few hundred Euros and the new machines have up to 30% discounts when compared to their retail counterparts.

Asia-Pacific

BuyMac.com.au

This website caters to the Australian market and is an authorised Apple Reseller. Their normal prices are pretty much on par with most other websites with a few variations. When they have sales and promotional offers they can go down quite a bit. However, it’s their ‘Clearance’ section that I’m interested in.

They list plenty of ex-demo Macs and retail returns. For example, I saw this 15″ MacBook Pro which had been reduced from AUD$3,199 to AUD$2,499. Not a bad saving.

They also have a real-world store in Melbourne so you can pick up your products should you live near them.

Note: Most of the Official European and Asian Apple websites offer refurbished Macs in the same manner as the US site does so make sure to check out your local Apple website for great savings.

A Word of Warning about Asian Wholesalers

Macs and Apple products in general have become status symbols as much as they have become tech Gods. For that reason, there are numerous websites which will offer you discounted Macs as seemingly unimaginable prices. I’m talking about certain Chinese wholesale sites which I won’t mention for legal reasons. I’m sure many of you are familiar with them by hearing or seeing rip-off iPhones and hearing horror stories on online forums.

I have heard both good and bad, but it’s important to take good reviews with a shovel of salt as this is the Internet after all. Bottom line, many cheap Mac computer offers are scams. I did a lot of research for this article to ensure I didn’t inadvertently include any in this list. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Sometimes it’s worth paying an extra couple hundred bucks so the product will actually arrive at your door.

Apple Education Discount

When buying from the official Apple online stores, you can save hundreds of dollars on new Mac computers if you’re a student or a teacher/lecturer. Apple say:

“If you are a student, teacher, lecturer, administrator or other staff member in education you qualify for special discounted pricing on Apple computers, software and select third party products.”

So if you’re at college or university, it may work out cheaper to buy directly from Apple because of the discount. Keep in mind that you will have to prove you actually attend the school you say you do.

Always remember, you can also save even more money when buying online by using coupon sites such as Retail Me Not and Deals.com. These sites syndicate one-off offers from thousands of website, all of which would be impossible to cover here. I dedicated an an entire chapter to the subject in my PDF Guide which you can find here.

Do you know of any other great websites which offer Macs at a cheaper price? Well, share them!

However, as time went on, I think we all noticed that buildings in our areas which were knocked down years ago still appeared in the program.

As it happened, Google Earth wasn’t updated instantly, so despite what YouTube videos would have you believe, you can’t spy on your neighbours or track the movement of Chinese naval vessels.

So just how often is Google Earth updated? Well, that depends on a few variables.

Location

As with all mainstream software programs, Google Earth aims to serve the masses. Thus, they invest their funding into keeping the most frequently searched and viewed areas updated. This variable is the most definitive in how often an area is updated in Google Earth.

So for example, New York will be updated quite regularly and in high detail using low flying aircraft to get good resolution imagery. They may also add an extra layer to popular locations which makes prominent buildings 3D. You can see this in the image above.

On the other side of the same coin, in answer to the question how often is Google Earth updated, you can bet your life savings that the imagery of the remote Irish countryside or Russian mountain ranges are still in very low resolution and have never been updated from their original state.

Security

Another reason location might come into play is for security reasons. Sensitive military bases and installations are often blurred and not updated by Google when requested by world governments. Area 51 in the Nevada desert is one which springs to mind, and the Royal Stables at The Hague in The Netherlands is another, as seen below.

Also, Google may cease updating a certain area if they get wind of their imagery being used for military intelligence or crime. For example, Hamas have been rumoured to use Google Earth to pinpoint rocket strikes at Israel from the Gaza strip.

Finally, “˜no fly’ zones and conflict zones won’t be updated with high resolution pictures from aircraft because it’s not allowed for security reasons. For example, you won’t be able to find detailed imagery of Southern Afghanistan or Iraqi mountains due to the current conflicts. All you’ll get are old, blurry satellite images.

Google is sensitive as to how their software is used, as any company would be, and have taken action to prevent it being used in malicious ways.

The Time Factor in Determining How Often Google Earth is Updated

As I’ve referred to in the above paragraphs, the low level, high resolution imagery on Google Earth, such as that of cities and infrastructure is not done by satellites as many people believe. When you zoom in on Google Earth, to the point where you can see your car very clearly parked on your driveway, then that’s the work of aerial photography. If however, your house is a barely discernible brown blob amidst a landscape of psychedelic blurs, then that’s the work of a satellite suspended above the Equator.

Obviously, it takes time for these aircraft to run those photography update missions. They are also run by a number of private companies, not by Google itself, so getting all these images pieced together takes even more time. Finally, the databases cannot be updated until a new version of Google Earth is released which happens every few months. Thus, it takes more time.

On average, imagery of an area is updated every 1-3 years. Some areas are updated more regularly, others have never been updated. It all boils down to where you live and how important Google reckons it is that your area is given fresh images. Most urban areas will have been updated at least once since 2005.

What about your area on Google Earth?  Is it regularly updated or are you just a big blurry blob?  Let us know in the comments.

This process has become an internet meme over the past few years and has been blogged about extensively. Many blogs are practical in nature such as Lifehacker, but others are inspirational and use the process of hacking to have a wider effect on your life ““ not just one problem you might have.

I enjoy reading these blogs and over the past year or so I have subscribed to, and unsubscribed from many. As of the time of writing this article there are four of the best inspiring blogs, which I give a prominent position to in my RSS reader.

Timothy Ferris ““ The Four Hour Work Week

Firstly, I’d like to separate his blog from his book. Ferris wrote a terrific book about building a small business and streamlining workflow (which I highly recommend). However he also updates a blog by the same name at FourHourWorkWeek.  The man has pretty much become a legend for using life hacks to travel the world and also run a highly profitable business which takes just a few hours every month on his laptop, all through the magic of lifestyle design.

The hacks he describes on his blog are truly awesome. They range from the practical things like getting free flights, right up to ultimate life goals and self improvement such as learning new languages and improving your physical fitness.

The most obvious thing about Tim’s blog is not so much in how he writes it, it’s his ideas and thinking. The writing itself is very simple. Challenging popular beliefs, myths and mindsets are commonplace. Many of the obstacles we come up against in life are purely mental, and Tim spares no time in showing you easy hacks to get around those problems.

Henrik Edberg ““ The Positivity Blog

I wouldn’t go as far as to call this blog a self-help blog, more a resource of hacks and positive writings to motivate, inspire and inform the readers. It’s one of the best inspiring blogs, run by Henrik Edberg, a 29 year old guy from Sweden, who originally started it in 2006 during the “˜Blogging Boom’. In his own words, “The Positivity Blog is focused on positivity and opening up new possibilities for happiness and awesomeness through motivating and practical articles on how to improve your life.

The subject matter is a little more “˜out there’ than the other blogs in this list. He focuses on the mental aspect of hacking your life and the emotional side of things. Subjects such as creating happiness and health issues are all addressed.

But don’t get me wrong, this is no ‘Dr.Phil’ blog. He uses no flowery, sensationalist language to promise you the world. Rather he shares his ideas and how they worked for him. He also offers a free e-book for subscribers to download.

Jeffrey Tang – The Art of Great Things

This is by no means the biggest blog in the list but it is still one of the best inspiring blogs. In fact, I was skeptical about it when I clicked “˜Subscribe’ a few months ago. But I’ve been impressed with many of his posts and his “˜no nonsense’ approach to writing them. He addresses many of the issues (not so much problems) that occur in life such as “Too Many Rules, Too Little Trust“ or “You Must Have Cheated“.

His posts aren’t too long but are entertaining to read and very insightful. One of the cornerstones of great writing is to spur action from the reader and Jeffrey certainly has the drive and passion behind his work to do just that.

As of now, the blog has just over 1,000 subscribers, but don’t let that fairly modest number belittle this blog when compared to the bigger ones. Check it out and see if it has a place in your RSS reader.

Leo Babauta ““ Zen Habits

The tagline of this blog is “Simple Productivity” and that is precisely what Leo teaches. An advocate of a minimalistic lifestyle he shows us on a post-by-post basis the benefits of taking every piece of clutter you own and dumping it, selling it or donating it. He holds some extreme beliefs which I’m sure many of you will disagree with. The idea of taking all of your photo albums, cherished gifts from first loves and old birthday cards, digitizing them and then tossing them is an outrageous concept for most of us, myself included. And that’s fine. He merely tells us what he does and his take on things ““ there’s no obligation to be as extreme as he is. Nonetheless, his tactics work.

He has helped me quite a lot. Simple things such as getting rid of paper in my office, de-cluttering what I own (you’d be surprised how much of your stuff is actually useless junk) and simplifying things I had assumed were complicated by their very existence all created a minimalistic environment.

His “˜zen-like’ outlook and insight is inspiring to say the least. As are the ideas he spawns from it. Challenging the issue of time and formality in social circles are just a few of the topics you’ll find during a quick scan of his apt, minimalist blog.

I strongly encourage you to take a quick look at each of these blogs and see if they’re right for you. If not, do you know of any other cool lifestyle design or life hacking blogs?

Image Credit: h.koppdelaney

You can do this by creating a software license agreement which the users must agree to before installing the software. You’ll find these during the installation process on practically all software today.

By creating a software license agreement between you and the software user, you are guaranteeing yourself security. Your program can’t be stolen, modified or used in a way which it wasn’t intended if you say so. And in the event that your rules for using the program aren’t upheld, you have a legally binding contract to back you up in legal proceedings.

Creating a software license agreement isn’t at all difficult. In fact, it can be broken down into four different stages.

Licensing

The license under which your software is distributed are the terms under which the software can be redistributed, modified or otherwise re-used. State in no uncertain terms which way you want the software to be used. Perhaps you would like to leave it as open source and allow anyone to redistribute it or modify it. On the opposite end of the scale, you could choose to reserve all rights to the software and disallow anyone from reusing the software “without full written permission from the developer”.

This is the most important part of the the software license agreement, as it covers a lot of bases at one, not to mention it protects your company’s name. The last thing you want are bogus versions being released without a thing you can do about it.

Warranties

What happens if your customer isn’t too pleased with the software or it damages some of their equipment? Or indeed, it just won’t work. You can decide whether or not to offer a warranty and even set an expiration date for it.

Other variables such as “˜Acts of God’ should be taken into account. What if their computer breaks while your CD is in it? You can’t be held responsible for that. Or if the software won’t perform due to limitations in their own system specs.

Liability

This section carries on from the previous. You should state here to what extent you, the developer, will be held responsible for damages caused because of your software. State clearly what voids the warranty. Also, you should remember that third party applications and external perishables could interfere with your program and you cannot be held responsible for damages caused or lack of performance due to this.

To put it simply, the liability section should contain information relating to the extent you’re willing to put your hand up and take the blame for the failings of your software. You could, if you should so wish, elect to not take any responsibility and state that the user “installs and uses the program at their own risk”.

Laws

Finally, you should state in clear terms which local or international laws apply to the licensing agreement of your software. By simply Googling “˜Licensing Laws’ and your area, you can find these. You’ve got to back up the rules above by showing users that offenders will be prosecuted.

International copyright law and licensing laws are also available and can be found in almost any agreement. These basically sum up the licensing agreements (whichever you choose) and list international laws, acts and jurisdictions under which they can be enforced. These are all written the same so you can take them from another agreement and change the company name to your own.

The best tip I can give you for creating a Licensing Agreement is to use unambiguous language. Stating the rules under which the software is used in clear, simple language closes the many loopholes which could be found by using loose language. Words can be interpreted differently. Overall though, there’s not much to worry about. Licensing agreements are pretty standardized and ironclad.

Before writing your own licensing agreement, it’s worthwhile reading one or two others from different pieces of software. This gives you an example of the four steps implemented above.

Let us know your experiences in writing your own licensing agreements in the comments below.

Image Credit: enriqueburgosgarcia